In War and in Peace
by CarlieD
Summary: Post-DH. The bittersweet story of how a family struggled to rebuild itself. Learning to trust each other again, learning to live with one brother less, learning to parent when you’d never had any to show you how. The story of the Weasley-Potter-Lupin fami
1. Prologue: May 2, 1998

**IN WAR AND IN PEACE**

_Post-DH. The bittersweet story of how a family struggled to rebuild itself. Learning to trust each other again, learning to live with one brother less, learning to parent when you'd never had any to show you how. The story of the Weasley-Potter-Lupin family._

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the HP universe. Some of the details on the second-generation aren't quite canon, just to warn you.

* * *

**Prologue: May 2, 1998**

54 dead. They ranged in age from 16 to 98. Some were students, some professors, some fighters and others defenders. There were centaurs, humans, house-elves. Dark and Light alike.

Harry took a deep breath as he walked through the bodies laid reverently to one side, waiting for survivors to claim them. Fred's body had already been moved by Bill, the rock of the family while the others tried to cope. He knew that many of the evacuated students and their families would be arriving shortly, hoping beyond reason that their loved ones had survived.

He had to take their bodies back to Andromeda. He had to break the news to her somehow, some way. He had to give her the bodies of her daughter and son-in-law. He had to tell her that her three-week-old grandson was an orphan.

Biting his lower lip, Harry sat down on the ground next to the last Marauder and touched his shoulder lightly, hoping beyond reason… "I never did get a chance to say I was sorry for calling you a coward," he said softly. "I didn't really mean it, you know. Well, I did, actually, that's a lie. But I _am_ sorry." He paused, remembering the last time he'd seen his father's friend before the battle – the night Teddy had been born, remembering how much younger he had looked that night, how happy he'd been. And he felt the ripples of anger course through his heart. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that they should've torn him away so soon. Torn _them_ away. There'd been enough children orphaned in this stupid war, himself included.

But Teddy would be different. Teddy would still have somebody, and not a horrible aunt and uncle. Teddy would have _him_.

"I'll take good care of him, Remus," he said quietly, the first tear escaping as he jumped at a light hand on his leg. Whirling around, he saw Ginny kneeling next to him, her eyes bloodshot and cheeks tearstained. He could see the scrape on her jaw from where she'd hit the hard ground and slid during the battle, could see the cut above her left brow and the way her entire body still trembled. "C'mere," he said softly, holding out his arms, and she fell into them, burying her face into his shoulder as she started sobbing again.

"Tell me none of this is real," she begged, as he wrapped his arms tightly around her, rocking her slightly and kissing the top of her head comfortingly. "Tell me this is all just a nightmare."

Harry was silent as another tear slid down his cheek.

Percy was coming out of the Great Hall, presumably looking for Ginny, and stopped when he saw them. Then he turned and retreated back into the hall.

"_No! Colin!_" came the grief-stricken scream of Dennis Creevey, the first one to return. His cry was soon joined by others.

* * *

"No…" came a soft whisper across from him as he woke up that evening. He'd stayed at the castle with what remained of the bodies – people with no family, Muggleborns whose families were yet to be informed. In all there was approximately twenty. He would stay there until the last body was removed. It was all because of him that the battle had happened, that they were dead. Charlie had come to gently pry Ginny away at sunset, the Weasleys and Hermione all leaving for the Burrow with Fred's body. "No, this can't be true…"

Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Harry saw Andromeda kneeling next to her daughter's body, the baby asleep in a carrier beside her. For the first time in the year he'd known her, Andromeda looked… old. Worn. Sick.

"Mothers are never supposed to outlive their children," she murmured, stroking Tonks' cheek gently. "Never. It's not right."

"It's not right that mothers are killed before their children are old enough to remember them," Harry said quietly.

"She can't be dead," Andromeda repeated shakily, running long, elegant fingers through pink hair. "She can't be." She wavered for a minute, looking close to passing out.

"Andromeda, you okay?" Harry asked worriedly.

"No," she replied. "I've been sick for a while now. I didn't tell Nymphadora. I couldn't bear to burden her with that, too, along with everything else. I'm due to check into St. Mungo's tomorrow. I came here hoping I would find them still cleaning up, to bring them back the baby. I don't know what to do now."

Harry didn't even hesitate. "I'll take him. I'm his godfather."

Andromeda looked at him. "I don't know how long it'll be, Harry. I may not come out at all."

"As long as it takes," Harry replied. "Don't worry about it, Andromeda."

She was silent for a long time before she passed him the carrier and bag. "I know this sounds horrible and crass, but can you –" she trailed off, watching her daughter's deathly white face. "I just can't deal with this right now, and she needs to be…" She stopped, voice quavering.

Harry nodded. "I'll handle it," he said quietly, lifting Teddy carefully from the carrier when the newborn began to whimper and squirm, waking up.

He would handle a lot of funerals over the next week.


	2. The Week of Funerals

**Chapter 1: The Week of Funerals**

The school was deserted, the sun long since set. On either side of Dumbledore's white marble tomb were three small, makeshift crosses. Two on the right, one on the left.

He thought they would've wanted to be buried here. After all, some of the best years of their lives had been here.

He would make sure there were proper grave markers later. For right now, Teddy was beginning to fuss in the cold night air. He needed to leave.

"Say goodbye to Daddy and Mummy, Teddy," Harry murmured, lifting his infant godson into his arms. "And one day, when you're old enough, I'll tell you about how they died, and you'll say thank you."

That was Saturday.

* * *

"Who's there?" came Arthur's shaky voice from the sitting room as Harry pushed open the kitchen door. "Identify yourself!"

"It's me," Harry called softly, setting down Teddy's bag on the kitchen table and lifting Teddy from the carrier again. "What are you doing still awake?" he asked, rubbing the baby's back as his godson began to cry.

Arthur was sitting on the couch looking at the family clock. _Arthur. Molly. Bill. Fleur. Charlie. Percy. George. Ron. Ginny._ The Fred hand was gone. "Couldn't sleep." He looked up when Harry moaned in mild panic as Teddy started screaming. "Here, let me show you something." He took the baby from Harry and laid him down on his lap, carefully supporting his head with one hand and rubbing his stomach lightly with the other. Slowly, Teddy calmed, though he continued to flail against Arthur's hold. Arthur transferred him back to Harry, instructing, "Keep doing that until he falls asleep again. Used to knock Fred right out. Never worked with anybody else, but it always worked with Fred." He smiled softly for a moment. "You're welcome to stay here for the night, Harry."

"Thanks, I think I will," Harry replied gratefully. "Hey, thanks… for helping."

"They take some getting used to, that's all," Arthur replied. "I've had a bit of practice."

* * *

When Ginny made her way down the stairs the next morning, she caught sight of Harry asleep on the couch, arms protectively encircling Teddy, nestled into his chest.

Smiling slightly, she leaned over the couch and kissed him. "Wake up," she whispered. Harry stirred slightly, mumbling something indistinctly. "Wake up, Harry," she repeated. "Come for a walk with me, I want to talk to you."

He needed to cry. He needed to cry like she had cried last night. Then, he had been the strong one. He had been the one who needed to pull himself together, do all the gruesomely necessary tasks of identifying bodies, releasing bodies, breaking news to families, burying the unclaimed bodies. It was time for her to be the strong one.

* * *

He smelled very distinctly of baby, and she breathed it in deeply. It was a good smell, it was the smell of life and health. His arm was reassuringly solid and warm around her waist as she nestled against his side. "So what time did you arrive last night?" she asked.

"Probably around 2 or 3," Harry replied, double-checking to make sure that Teddy was still fast asleep in his other arm. "I had to…" he trailed off, the first of the sobs threatening to escape. "I had to bury them first."

"What happened with Andromeda?" Ginny asked. "I take it she arrived after we left."

"She came to Hogwarts thinking that Remus and Tonks were still cleaning up, to bring them Teddy. She's going into St. Mungo's tomorrow for some sort of illness. Doesn't know when or if she'll be out."

"So what's happening with Teddy in the meantime?" she asked softly.

"I guess I have him," Harry said. "Not like I can go back and tell them they can't die for another couple of years yet."

Ginny was quiet for a long time while she processed that fact. "That means you're not coming back to Hogwarts in the fall, if McGonagall lets the older students back to finish?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to step foot inside Hogwarts again, Ginny," Harry replied, removing his arm from her waist when Teddy woke and started squirming. "Besides, right now Teddy's my priority," he continued, settling Teddy against one shoulder and draping his blanket over top of him. Looking up at the rising sun, he sighed and said, "We'd best get back to the house."

"It seems so wrong," Ginny said softly, watching the colours paint the sky. "That the sun still rises so beautifully, when there's so much hurt… It seems more right that the sky is dark."

"Life still goes on, Ginny," Harry replied, brushing a strand of bright red hair away from Teddy's eyes. "No matter how hard you think it is, the sun still rises in the morning and sets in the evening. The earth still turns, and life goes on. Time doesn't stop for all of us just because it stopped for a few, and it's an insult to them if we don't keep on going."

"You've thought about this."

"Off and on since Sirius was killed."

* * *

They heard explosions in the distance just as a solemn breakfast was beginning, Harry managing the stove with Teddy still settled against his shoulder as the Weasleys and Hermione all sat in shock at the table.

"What's that?" George asked shakily, as Molly shook her head wordlessly and buried her face into Arthur's shoulder, whose face was still grimly pallid.

"Retaliatory strikes, no doubt," Bill said quietly.

"It happened at the end of the first war, too," Charlie added, looking out the window to see clouds of smoke rising in the distance. "Death-Eaters who escaped capture would attack buildings, people, to cause as much damage as possible before the Aurors caught up with them. The Aurors were on revenge missions. Some people were so angry at the loss of loved ones that they attacked known and suspected Death-Eater residences. It was chaos for weeks."

"More people will die before this is well and truly over," Bill said grimly.

That was Sunday.

* * *

It was Colin Creevey's funeral on Monday. There were five dead, ten wounded in the Sunday strikes, and Death-Eaters had bombed the Potter house to smithereens. By the time Parvati and Padma Patil's funeral came on Tuesday, the toll had jumped to fourteen dead, eighteen wounded. At Firenze's funeral on Wednesday, it was twenty dead, twenty wounded, and Grimmauld Place was burnt to the ground. On Thursday, they buried Euan Abercrombie and the toll sat at twenty-three dead, thirty wounded.

Friday brought Professor Flitwick's funeral and the mass memorial service at Hogwarts. It had taken Harry all of his strength and his courage to walk back onto the bloody field, past the burnt patches and debris-littered areas to where the first funerals, unknown to the rest of the world, had taken place on Saturday.

"I know," Professor McGonagall said with great pain in her voice, "that this is a difficult time for all of us. We have all lost family, friends. Some more than one. But it is for that precise reason that we continue on. Our friends, our families, did not die so that we could waste away our lives." She paused, struggling to find the words to say. "We lost a number of good professors here last week. But Professor Firenze, Professor Flitwick, Professor Lupin would be among the first to tell you that their posts should be filled, that classes continue as normal. If we let these deaths break us, then the Dark Lord has won from beyond his grave. For that reason, we will recommence classes as usual on the 20th. Temporary hires have been made to fill the empty posts. Students who were forced out of the school in the last year will be taken back and their missed year caught up. The seventh-years…" She looked at Harry at that statement, sad acknowledgment in her eyes as he dropped his gaze to Teddy, lying placidly in his lap, little feet and fists kicking. "Those who were to be in seventh year have the option of returning. Some of you may find that your circumstances will not allow for a return to school…"

"Harry, you _are_ coming back with us, aren't you?" Hermione murmured, hand tightening on Ron's as she watched Harry's quiet face. "You can't just drop out."

Harry shook his head, letting Teddy grab hold of his finger and pull it into his mouth. "Can't go back."

"Harry, you can't get your Auror's certification without NEWTs," Ron muttered under his breath.

"I know," Harry replied, feeling Ginny's hand fall lightly onto his arm as he brushed a gentle finger across Teddy's forehead to push a curl out of his eyes.

That was Friday.

* * *

Fred's funeral was interrupted by an urgent message arriving for Bill, Fleur, Arthur and Percy. The goblins were rioting at Gringotts. All Ministry and wizarding bank employees were needed on the scene to try and calm them.

The rest of the family all cast world-weary glances at each other as the three left. When would it finally end?

* * *

The riots lasted for hours. George finally retreated back to the shop with Charlie, Molly locked herself into the master bedroom and Ron and Hermione both disappeared somewhere else.

Teddy was gurgling away contentedly, lying on his back on the floor. Grinning a hapless baby smile at Harry, he reached out for his glasses.

"Nice try there, kid, but no luck," Harry said quietly.

Ginny sighed as she stretched out on her stomach next to Harry. "Do you think he even realizes that they're dead?" she asked, resting her head against his shoulder. Harry shook his head.

"I don't think he's even old enough to realize who they were," he replied just as the kitchen door opened and the missing Weasleys came back in, grim-faced and battle-torn.

"Gringotts has crashed," Bill reported bluntly. "Everything in it is gone. The goblins have destroyed everything."

* * *

"So what does this mean?" Charlie asked quietly as the family gathered in the sitting room.

Bill sighed, Fleur curled into his arm. "Every last piece of money in England is in a puddle in the centre of the earth by now." He paused for a second. "They raided the vaults, destroyed the passages, burnt all the open mortgage agreements. The brokers will doubtlessly be repossessing a lot of houses in the next while. There's nothing left of banking as we know it."

"So there's nothing?" Molly asked weakly. "Our vaults, our house…"

"This place should be fine, Mum, you and Dad have had the house long enough, your mortgage is paid off. Percy and George are fine because they're both renting, Charlie's all right because he's got his stuff in Romania…"

"We, on zee ozzer 'and," Fleur spoke up softly, "can keess Seashell Cottage _au revoir_."

Harry processed that statement silently, without looking at Ginny, who had paled; without looking at Bill and Fleur, who were both looking sick; without looking at Ron and Hermione, who had turned to him in horror. He knew what Bill was saying. He had nothing to his name but the clothes on his back, and nowhere to go… and he had a month-old baby to support.

That was Saturday. One week to the day.


	3. The Closing Of A Chapter

A/N: Just to warn everybody, this story was written to be a companion to 'Past and Present', a prequel, if you will. So no, it's not entirely JKR-compliant.

**

* * *

**

Chapter 2: Closing the Book on One Chapter

"Harry, what are you –"

"I don't know."

"Where are you going to –"

"I don't know."

* * *

Harry closed his eyes and tried to think, walking around the sitting room in an effort to draw Teddy into sleep.

He had to find some way, some place to move into. But where was he going to find someplace like that when the wizarding economy was in shambles? He couldn't risk a Muggle apartment, not with Teddy's Metamorphmagy. They couldn't stay here indefinitely. Andromeda had shut down her place while she was hospitalized. The two places he could've gone – his parents' house and Grimmauld Place – were both destroyed.

There was one more place where he might be able to stay for a short while.

* * *

Harry stopped at the edge of the driveway. Once again, he was back at the one place he truly detested. Sighing as he kissed Teddy's forehead, he muttered, "The things I do for you…"

Then he walked up the pathway to number 4, Privet Drive and knocked.

Dudley answered the door. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a low voice, looking a little uncomfortable. "You shouldn't be here, Dad is going to flip…"

"Who's at the door, Dudley?" came Vernon's call from inside the house. His uncle stopped dead in his tracks and turned an impressive shade of purple. "What are you doing here, boy?"

Harry swallowed his pride and said, "I was hoping that I could stay here for a bit. Just until I can get back on my feet…"

"Stay here?" Vernon sputtered. "Are you barking mad? We just got back from that old dump you had us packed off to! I don't want you anywhere near my house!"

* * *

"Harry, what were you expecting?" Ginny asked softly that night, as he was putting Teddy down to sleep. "They've been like that since the day you arrived."

Harry sighed. "I don't know. In all honesty, I knew it was a long shot."

Teddy let out a small cry of upset as Harry released him, reaching his tiny little arms out to his godfather. Biting his lower lip, Harry lifted him up from the bassinet again and laid him down on the floor next to him. A brief, sad smile flitted across his face when he leaned down to kiss his godson's nose, only to have Teddy grab at his glasses gleefully. "Give those back," he said. Teddy merely gave him a babyish grin and pulled them away. "Oh, come on, that's not nice."

* * *

"I have no problem with them staying here, Arthur," Molly murmured quietly. "It's not like they have anywhere to go. Harry'd be able to finish school… And I'd feel so much better with as many of the children as possible here. It's still so unstable, Arthur, out there… Don't make me lose another child…" Her eyes began to fill with tears, watching him desperately.

"I'd be happy to have them stay, too, Molly," Arthur replied softly, watching discreetly from the kitchen as a ghost of a smile and a laugh escaped from his daughter, leaning against Harry comfortably as she played with Teddy, the fingers of one hand laced tightly through Harry's. "But it's more of a matter of if they would want to. Bill and Fleur are full-grown adults. Harry's got Teddy to think about. Would you have wanted to live with our parents when we were young and we had Bill?"

"If I had no other choice, if it meant that we had a roof over our heads and food for the baby…" Molly whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Let them make that decision on their own, dear," Arthur said, wrapping his arms around her. "And whatever they decide, remember that we _will_ all get through this. Together, as a family."

* * *

The next morning, the household awoke to find Hermione sobbing into Ron's shoulder in the kitchen, while he awkwardly tried to deal with it.

"What's going on?" Harry asked worriedly.

Ron looked up. "Hermione's just realized Gringotts' fall means she can't get her parents back."

"And I kn-kn-know it w-w-won't be forever, and I kn-kn-know it's stupid to get u-upset…" Hermione sobbed. "But I w-w-want them b-b-back so much…"

"Shh, 'Mione, we'll figure something out," Ron said softly, looking at Harry pleadingly. He just shrugged and shook his head, heading back into the sitting room to collect Teddy, who had woken up with a scream of displeasure.

* * *

"What do you mean, you're leaving?" Molly asked in dismay that evening, as she stared at her sons. "You – you – you can't be _leaving_…"

"I'm sorry, Mum, but I've got to get back to Romania," Charlie apologized softly, giving her a tight hug and a light kiss on the cheek. "I've already overstayed my leave."

"And I'll be back before you even notice I'm gone, Mum," Ron said reassuringly. "Just to Australia and back. Won't take us very long at all."

"George and I both need to get back to London to guard our flats, Mum," Percy said quietly. "With all the repossessing, there's bound to be some unscrupulous person trying to seize an empty flat."

Molly sniffled and tried to compose herself. "And I suppose you'll be leaving as well?" she snapped tearfully at Bill and Fleur, who both looked startled for a moment.

Bill hesitated, and then, as Fleur buried herself in his side, nodded. "Not for long, Mum. We're only across the Channel. It's just… it's easier to go to France for a bit, build up some money and come back."

" 'Not for long,' 'We're only in France,' 'Only in London'…" Molly muttered, just as Arthur pulled her into his arms and mouthed to his sons with a slight shake of his head, 'Just go.'

There were five ashamed 'sorry, Mum' whispers that passed by her as she broke down again.

* * *

Ginny listened to the breakdown from the sitting room, snuggling down securely into Harry's side as he was trying to lull Teddy into sleep by rubbing his back. Sighing, she slipped one finger into the baby's small palm, brushing his hand with her thumb as she nestled her head into Harry's shoulder. "Can't you stay here, with us?" she asked softly. "If you leave, I'm leaving too. I don't want to have to tell Mum that. Not now."

"You're not leaving with me, you're going back to Hogwarts," Harry replied quietly. "One of us ought to at least finish school."

"You can go back, too," Ginny pleaded. "Mum would take care of Teddy…"

"And have him not know who I am when I come back?" Harry asked rhetorically. "No, Ginny, it's not happening. I'm sorry." He felt a slight edge of guilt as he recognized that familiar feeling of her tears against his skin, but he couldn't change his decision. He'd made a choice, one he could live with, and it was all for the sake of the two people snuggled against him. For the girl he'd realized far too late that he loved, and for the baby boy he'd been entrusted with.

It was a trust he wouldn't break. For Remus' memory, for Tonks' memory, he wouldn't abandon his godson to chase his own dreams.

It hit him just then. Remus and Tonks' house. Surely it wouldn't have been caught in the repossessing, if it had belonged to Remus probably since the last years that the original Marauders were still alive and together. It was likely remote, not likely to have been caught in the retaliatory strikes…

* * *

Why did he feel as though he was trespassing on sacred ground?, Harry wondered as he cautiously unlocked the door of the small cottage, which was thankfully intact. Taking a deep breath, he pushed it open.

The house was still in mild disarray, most likely from Tonks' whirlwind departure. His nose picked up the slight smell of spoilt food – after almost two weeks, he wasn't entirely surprised. There was laundry in various stages of completion, books lying open on the table, a couple of _Daily Prophet_ issues piled on the floor.

"Well, I suppose it's a good second," Ginny said quietly, still holding onto his arm. "I'd still like it better if you stayed with us…"

"I don't want to leech off of other people, Ginny," Harry said. "Besides… it's here, we might as well put it to good use."

"It's not bad," Ginny finally agreed. "It's quiet, out-of-the-way…"

"That was probably the idea, darling," Harry sighed.

* * *

Being back in his own house seemed to work wonders on Teddy's sleep, Harry noticed that night as he was cleaning up. The baby was sound asleep in the nursery, sucking peacefully on his fist. Ginny had gone back to the Burrow, to prepare for going back to school tomorrow.

He wouldn't get rid of the important things: the pictures, the letters, the journal that he wasn't so surprised Remus had kept – he was, after all, a journal-keeping sort of person. They would be stored away here, up in the attic, accessible for when, one day, Teddy would ask about his parents.

Sighing, Harry curled up on the bed and fell straight asleep.

_

* * *

_

August 31, 1998:

"Aw, come on, Teddy, we're late as it is!" Harry groaned as he tried to get overalls onto a wiggly infant. Teddy giggled and pushed his feet against the floor, pinning down the legs of his overalls. Letting a cry of indignation escape when Harry lifted the boy up far enough from the floor to let him pull on the legs, Teddy kicked desperately. Finally, Harry sat him back down on the ground and quickly clipped the straps over his shoulders. "Great, and you've grown again too. Well, you know what, I'm still broke." Pulling out his wand, he held his godson steady. "Hold still, I don't want to spell _you_."

Teddy reached for the wand, giggling again when Harry wrapped an arm around him, effectively pinning down his arms.

Once he managed to lengthen the legs on the overalls, the clothes looking sadly worn and stretched, he got to his feet and hoisted the bag onto his shoulder and Teddy onto his hip.

* * *

"Harry! Finally, dear, we were getting worried," Molly said in relief as Harry walked into the Burrow. She pulled him into a tight hug and kissed his cheek affectionately. Then she dove in at Teddy, pulling the 4-month-old out of Harry's arms and smothering him with kisses. "And how's our favourite little boy today? Being a darling little cutie-pie as usual? Yeah, you know you're a sweetheart… Going to break a lot of girls' hearts, you are…"

Teddy squealed in delight. Molly laughed in response and nuzzled his face.

"Hey, Harry," Ron and Hermione both greeted as they came into the kitchen from the sitting room. "Running a little late?" Ron asked with a grin.

"Yeah, he wouldn't stay still long enough to let me get his overalls on," Harry replied with a smile, ruffling the silky golden locks as Molly nestled the baby back against her chest and started to dance around the room with him.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Mum has gotten so batty since you started bringing him over."

"Harry! You're here!" came Ginny's delighted voice as she flew into the kitchen, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "I was getting worried…" And again, she was distracted by the baby reaching for her happily. "Aw, hi, Teddy!" she said, prying him from her mother. More kisses were lavished.

* * *

By the time dinner was actually ready, Percy and George had arrived from London, and between the three women, they had already exhausted Teddy.

"He's such a well-mannered little thing," Hermione commented to Harry, as he held the drowsy boy against him on his lap.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. He's been chewing everything he can get his hands on lately." As if in response, Teddy grabbed hold of his finger and started to bring it to his mouth, then burst into tears when Harry pulled it away.

"Yeah, don't try the tears on me. I learnt my lesson," Harry said teasingly to the baby. Pulling out a small stuffed animal from his bag, Harry handed it to Teddy. "Chew on that."

"Oh, somebody's teething, isn't he?" Molly cooed. "Poor boy…"

Ron rolled his eyes and mouthed 'totally batty' to Harry, who laughed. "So, you sure you don't want to come back with us tomorrow?" he asked again, as Harry resettled Teddy against him and started to offer him some food.

"I already told you I can't three times, Ron," Harry replied quietly.

* * *

Teddy was out cold by the time they had arrived back at the house. Stifling a yawn, Harry put away the leftovers and extra food that Molly had insisted he take and then headed straight for bed.

* * *

The next morning, he woke up to the sounds of Teddy whining from the nursery. Yawning enormously as he got out of bed, Harry rubbed his eyes and realized that today was September 1. Ron, Hermione and Ginny would be heading back to Hogwarts today. Along with Dean, and Neville, and Seamus, and Luna...

But not him. He wouldn't be heading back.

"All right, buddy," Harry sighed as he lifted Teddy out of the crib and went to go get him changed and dressed. "You feel like going to London today? Yeah, we'll go say goodbye to Ginny and Ron and Hermione. They'd like that, I think."

Teddy grinned at him and tried to pull his finger into his mouth again.

* * *

Most of the students and their families looked a little more ragged than they had the year before. The economy crash had hit the entire country hard. Harry didn't feel quite so bad about their own worn-out clothes, knowing that they had plenty of company.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed, waving him over to where the Weasleys were all gathered. "Harry, you're _here_! What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd come see you off," Harry replied, giving her a quick kiss and deflecting Teddy's hand away from her hair. "You, you're not being very nice today," he scolded the baby gently as Teddy abandoned that route and tried to maul the sleeve of Ginny's robe.

"Well, if I had teeth bursting out of the insides of _my_ mouth, I wouldn't be very nice, either," Ginny cooed to Teddy, lifting him out of Harry's arms. "Come see Ginny. Ginny is sympathetic."

"Hey, Harry, coming back now?" Dean asked, showing up amongst the group with the other Gryffindors and Luna.

"No, I'm not," Harry sighed. "Just came to see the rest of you off."

"Who's this?" Neville asked, looking at the baby.

"That's the reason Harry's not coming back," Ron replied. "That's Teddy."

"My godson," Harry explained, reclaiming Teddy when the train's whistle sounded the five-minute warning. "His parents were both killed in the battle, so now I've got custody of him."

"Oh," came the choruses of understanding.

"That's rotten luck, that is," Seamus commented sympathetically.

"What, that his parents died or that I have custody?" Harry asked dryly.

"Well, both, really..."

"You guys had better get on before it leaves," Harry interrupted abruptly, letting each of the girls wrap their arms around his neck and give him a hug goodbye. He let both Ginny and Hermione kiss Teddy goodbye, and then said to Ron, "See you at Christmas."

"Yeah, Christmas," Ron replied. "See you."

As he watched the train leave, he could see that chapter of his life closing. And as Teddy babbled happily and grabbed at his glasses, he could see the new chapter opening.

"All right, you little devil, you," Harry laughed, prying his godson's fingers off of his lenses. "Let's go visit Grandmum while we're in London, yeah? I"m sure Grandmum's itching for some company at St. Mungo's."


	4. The Last Enemy That Shall Be Defeated

**Chapter 3: The Last Enemy To Be Defeated**

When Harry and Teddy arrived from London for Halloween dinner, having spent the day out and about with Andromeda, he could already see something was different at the Burrow.

George and Percy were involved in a dispute of some kind – not at all unusual these days. Molly was laughing excitedly and close to tears. And Harry soon saw why.

Bill and Fleur were back, being constantly strangle-hugged by Molly.

"You're back!" Harry said in surprise.

"Yeah, we decided it was time to come back," Bill admitted with a grin. "Extenuating circumstances and all..." He paused for a second, before Fleur burst out happily,

"We are pregnant!"

Molly fairly squealed and hugged Bill and Fleur again. "I don't believe it! You're home! I get another grandchild!"

Bill laughed. "Glad to see you're so happy, Mum."

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Molly breathed. "Percy, George, enough already!"

There was a hurt expression in Percy's eyes as the two brothers joined the group, George still shooting daggers at him with his eyes. Harry looked at him questioningly, but George shook his head and headed into the kitchen behind the rest of his family.

"How long will I be paying for my mistakes?" Percy murmured.

"I dunno, Percy, you did hurt them pretty bad," Harry replied quietly, tightening his grip on Teddy as the baby tried to wriggle out of his arms. "What's going on?"

"I'm not quite sure. My fiancée wants to go visit her family in Canada for a few months. I just mentioned as an aside, and –"

Harry frowned at him. "When did you get engaged?"

"Probably six or seven months ago. It's been put on hold for a bit."

"That's probably what did it," Harry said. "Been engaged that long, never told anybody, they don't even know who she is, do they?"

"You're probably right," Percy murmured. "So I guess that means I should probably bring her around soon?"

"That would be a good thing, I'm thinking," Harry nodded.

"Boys, come sit down and have dinner!" Molly exclaimed, beckoning to them from the door.

* * *

"So do you know what you're having yet?" George asked Bill and Fleur with a grin. "This is exciting, I get to be the irritating uncle who spoils them rotten and sends them home all sugared up."

Bill laughed, Fleur's hand tightly enveloped in his own. "We're having a girl. Somewhere in May."

"Oh, another girl, this is wonderful!" Molly laughed.

"Eet eez a leetle sooner than we thought," Fleur admitted with a radiant smile.

"Yeah, not the best timing in the world," Bill agreed.

Molly waved him off. "If we'd waited for better timing, none of you would be around. There's no such thing as best timing for a baby."

Harry laughed. "I'll second that," he said, supporting Teddy securely on his unsteady feet as the little boy looked around the table and then giggled pointlessly.

"And we'll all get to practice on Teddy!" George said with a mischievous grin. "We'll spoil him senseless and then once the new baby comes, we can spoil her even more senseless."

"What, he's not already spoiled senseless?" Harry asked dryly.

* * *

St. Mungo's released Andromeda shortly before Christmas, though she was cautioned not to stay on her own. That was how she came to be occupying the spare room in the Lupin-Potter cottage on one cold, blustry winter's evening, laughing as she played with Teddy on the floor.

"My goodness, child, but you've got a set of muscles on you," she laughed, catching Teddy before he wriggled his way out of her thin, pale arms. "Come back here and snuggle with Grandmum. She doesn't see you nearly often enough for her liking."

"He doesn't like to snuggle lately," Harry said from nearby, where he was folding laundry (the Muggle way of course – it was still second nature to him to do all of the more household-y things that way). "I think Molly and Fleur and Audrey have snuggled him to death."

Teddy giggled happily and reached for another toy to offer his grandmother, a stray blue lock of hair falling into his face.

She smiled and mussed his hair, a slight glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes as she said, "You are most definitely Nymphadora's child."

There was a tapping at the window, and Harry got up to let Pig in. Clutched in his teeny-tiny talons was a roll of parchment addressed to him, in Ginny's handwriting.

_We're heading back for Christmas tomorrow morning. I was hoping you and Teddy might come meet us at Platform 9 ¾, it would be such a lovely welcome-home. You are still coming to Christmas dinner, right? I've missed you a lot this term, it just doesn't seem right that you're not here with the rest of us..._

Just as Harry had finished reading the letter, the front door opened and Ginny came in without announcement, as she was prone to doing ever since she'd turned 17. "Letter just arrived now," he said reproachfully, though he wrapped her into an indulgent hug and tender kiss when she threw herself at him.

"Aw, dear little Pig. He really isn't the most efficient owl, but he _was_ so eager for the job,_" _Ginny laughed, kissing him again. "Happy Christmas, Andromeda," she greeted as she noticed the older woman watching them in amusement. "Happy Christmas, Teddy!" she added, crouching down to kiss him. She scooped him up when he laughed and reached for her.

* * *

Harry woke up Christmas morning to the sound of tears. Rolling over, he saw Ginny burying her face into her pillow, shaking with sobs. Closing his eyes briefly, Harry pulled her into his arms and cradled her securely against him. "Shhh, I'm here, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere..."

It would hurt on the first everything: it would hurt the first Christmas, the first New Year's, the first birthday, the first anniversary. He still remembered the pain at the first Christmas without Sirius, the twinge that still tore at his heart even now, three years later.

Once Ginny had cried herself to sleep again, he heard Teddy beginning to wake up in the next room. Sighing, he gently laid Ginny back down and got up, getting to the nursery only to find Andromeda rocking him. She had dark, sunken eyes and she didn't look well.

"I think I'm going to be heading back to St. Mungo's today," she murmured softly, "while I can still get there on my own strength." She passed Teddy's sleepy weight to Harry, saying to him, "You're doing a good job, Harry. I know it's hard, but you're doing good."

Harry smiled gratefully at her. "Thanks, Andromeda. I'll bring him by tomorrow to visit."

"That'd be lovely," Andromeda replied, giving him a light kiss on the cheek and then making her way out to Disapparate.

Teddy whined and batted at Harry's arm.

* * *

The Burrow seemed to be a mixture of grief and happiness. There were no presents, no real Christmas dinner as they'd known it in past years, but it was a gathering of family, a celebration of life.

Teddy, meanwhile, was thoroughly enjoying his first Christmas, crawling around the sitting room at an astounding speed, pulling himself up into a standing position in various locations just to hear the coos and praise that were directed at him for it. He chattered away in baby-speak to anyone who would listen, and made a point of cuddling up to each and every person in his vicinity at least once. Finally, when the sun was beginning to set, he dropped of exhaustion into Harry's lap.

"I think there ought to be some sort of law that says everybody has to have a baby for at least one day of the year," Ginny sighed, nestling into Harry's side. "They're such great mood-boosters."

_

* * *

_

April 3, 1999:

"Oh, there's the birthday boy!" Molly exclaimed, kneeling down to kiss her 'grandson', who was stumbling along with Andromeda holding onto his hands tightly. "Hello, Andromeda," she greeted, standing back up.

"Hello, Molly," she returned, smiling as Teddy shrieked excitedly and jumped up and down. "Teddy, darling, you're going to fall," she said, tightening her hold on her grandson when he tried to lean forward. "Have you lost your balance?" she laughed as he threw all of his weight forward.

"No, Andromeda, it's a game," Harry said with a smile as he joined them. "You let him lean forward until he's almost touched his nose to the ground and then you pull him back."

Molly and Andromeda both looked at each other. "Clearly a boys' game," they said in unison.

* * *

Teddy laughed and pulled himself along the coffee table's edge, looking back to make sure his grandmother and godfather were watching him.

"Yes, Teddy, you are still the centre of attention," Andromeda called with a laugh and a smile.

"Do it without the table, and I'll really be impressed," Harry added with a grin.

"You just have such high standards for the kid, Harry," George said, rolling his eyes. Harry shrugged and laughed when Teddy sat himself down on the ground. "See? You've gone and destroyed his self-confidence."

Bill burst out laughing as Teddy turned himself around on his hands and knees and then got back on his feet. "Well, that's one way to turn around, Teddy."

Teddy paused at the end of the coffee table, looking at Harry expectantly.

"What? I'm not helping you the rest of the way. Do it yourself, you little pampered prince," Harry replied, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed behind his head.

Teddy looked at him a moment longer, then turned to Andromeda with the same expectant look.

"I'm too far, Teddy dear, I can't help you," Andromeda said.

He looked at Molly.

"You're a big boy, Teddy, you don't need my help," Molly laughed.

Finally, Teddy let go of the table and wobbled precariously for a moment.

"Are you actually going to do it this time?" Harry asked, sitting forward again. "'Cause last time, you – " He stopped when Teddy fell to the ground face-first. "Last time, you face-planted right into the floor."

The adults were all still roaring with laughter when Teddy managed to hoist himself off the ground slightly, screaming in upset.

"That was slightly embarrassing, wasn't it?" Harry said with a shake of his head, scooping up his godson from the floor and cuddling him into his arms. "Come on, nothing's broken. It's only a bang," he said comfortingly.

"I dunno, Harry, his pride might be damaged beyond repair," George laughed.

"Note to self, never let daughter learn to walk on hardwood flooring," Bill muttered.

_

* * *

_

May 2, 1999:

"All right, Teddy, you might be able to escape me if you knew how to walk," Harry laughed, catching his godson as he tried to crawl away from him. "Come on, then, dress clothes on."

Teddy giggled and shrieked and fought against Harry's grip as he wrangled him into his trousers and jacket. "No!"

"Yeah, you _would_ learn that word first," Harry muttered under his breath. "You're such a Lupin."

* * *

It hardly seemed as though a year had passed – in fact, it hardly seemed as though it had ever happened. Anybody looking at the Hogwarts grounds would have never guessed that a bloody, fatal battle had taken place on that very same field one year ago today. The grass was green, the trees were in full blossom, the castle was still as magnificent as ever... Only the white marble tomb marred the serene landscape, and the centaurs standing at attention at the edges of the Forest gave the indication as to the horrors that had befallen so many.

Ginny, Ron and Hermione had met the rest of the Weasleys and Harry at the entrance to the castle.

"Kingsley's to perform the memorial service today," Bill said quietly, his arm tight around Fleur's swollen waist. "We'd best go find seats."

Teddy shrieked again, fighting to get down from Harry's arms. Harry sighed in resignation. "I'll be around. He's not going to sit quietly at all today." Setting Teddy down on the ground, he let him grab hold of his hands.

"I'll come with you," Ginny said.

"You can go to the service if you want," Harry said quietly, as Teddy kept pulling at his hands. "Where are _you_ going, any way?"

"I think he's heading for the Quidditch pitch," Ginny laughed. "Oh, maybe not," she amended when Teddy made a turn towards...

"Figures. Go for the shiny things," Harry muttered, looking at the Gryffindor Quidditch trophies display. Hoisting Teddy up to get a better glimpse of them, he pointed to one near the front. "See that one, Teddy? Harry and Uncle George won that one."

"And they strutted about like peacocks for a week," Ginny laughed, joining them. "And see that one, Teddy?" She pointed to one not that far behind.

_Quidditch House Cup 1976, 1977, 1978: GRYFFINDOR_.

_Captain: James Potter_

_Keeper: Matthew Redwing_

_Chasers: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin_

_Beaters: Gideon Prewett, Fabian Prewett_

_Seeker: Quinn Ashton_

"Daddy won those. More than Harry ever won."

Teddy giggled and banged at the display glass momentarily, then kicked his way down to the ground again, seizing Harry's trouser leg before he lost his balance.

* * *

Teddy was happily pushing one of the school's Quaffles around on the grassy pitch, giggling insanely as he would stop to swat at a few butterflies in the air.

"Oh, so the scouts came to the last game," Ginny said suddenly, catching the Quaffle and Teddy as he lurched forward into her lap. "Careful, there, Teddy, you're going to knock a tooth out."

"Quidditch scouts?" Harry asked carefully, taking the Quaffle from her and rolling it a little ways away for Teddy to chase.

Ginny nodded. "The Harpies are looking for a Chaser, and offered me the position, if I want it."

"The Harp – the _Holyhead Harpies_?" Harry asked in astonishment. "Ginny, I hope you told them yes, that's the chance of a lifetime!"

Ginny smiled slightly. "Do you really think so?" she asked quietly. "It would be sort of fun, I think..."

"Tell me you told them yes!"

"I did, I was sort of hoping you'd say that," Ginny said with a slight laugh. "I didn't want to have to owl them back and withdraw my acceptance."

Harry looked at her. "You would've..."

"If you didn't think it was such a great idea, yeah," Ginny said. "I would've." She sighed and laid her head in his lap. Looking up at him, she said softly, "I love you, Harry. I'd do anything for you."

Harry smiled slightly and replied, "I love you too, Ginny."

Sitting up, Ginny pulled him into a long, lingering kiss. "Marry me?" she asked softly. "Soon?"

"Take the bull by the horns, why don't you?" Harry laughed, pulling away for a moment.

"I know you, it'd take you years to get up the gumption," Ginny replied. "I don't want to wait years. So?" she asked expectantly.

"Yeah, all right, you got a point. But you can't complain when we don't have any money at all because _you_ wanted to marry before we'd actually gotten any," Harry laughed, kissing her again.

"Promise," Ginny said with a delighted smile, then squealed excitedly. "Look, Harry, Teddy!"

Harry looked over, only to see his godson cautiously picking his way over the pitch on his wobbly feet. "Hey, there you go, kid!" He laughed as Teddy tripped over a hidden mound of dirt and went careening forward into his arms. "See? Told you you could do it by yourself."

Teddy grinned at him gleefully and got back to his feet, stumbling back over to the Quaffle to push it back to them.

Ron, Hermione, George, Percy and Audrey all arrived on the pitch just then, panting. "Fleur's in labour," Ron gasped out. "Gone to St. Mungo's. Come on."

* * *

"Oh, Bill, she's perfectly darling!" Ginny exclaimed as her eldest brother emerged from the hospital room with a tiny little pink bundle held carefully in his arms. Passing Teddy to Harry quickly, she immediately joined the rest of the family around him. "What'd you name her? What'd you name her?"

"Victoire Elise," Bill replied quietly, his eyes slightly watery. "Fleur insisted we name her Victoire in honour of the date."

"'Victory'," Arthur said in approval. "An appropriate name."

* * *

Harry hung back slightly, as Teddy looked at him in shock: why had he suddenly been abandoned for this thing?

"Me?" Teddy questioned pleadingly, patting Harry's cheek. "Me?"

"Aw, don't get all worked up over it, Teddy," Harry replied quietly, kissing his cheek. "She's new."

As he watched the newest family member get welcomed in, he could hear the voice in his mind as though it had only been yesterday:

_The last enemy that shall be defeated is death._

And he smiled. "Take that, death," he murmured, coming over to join Ginny with a not-so-subtle arm around her waist.


	5. A Brave New World

A/N: (sigh) This is what one gets for working lots of hours and going to university and not having time to keep up with HP news. One of my nice reviewers pointed a serious flaw in canon in the story (that Kingsley recruited Harry, Ron and Neville as Aurors). Since some elements of the story's sequel (Past and Present) have already smashed canon into smithereens, I'm going to valiantly attempt to work this new (to me) piece of information into this story to make it canon (there's no point in Past and Present, since that's after DH epilogue and by that point, Ron and Neville seem to have ceased to be Aurors).

**

* * *

**

Chapter 4: A Brave New World

_June 30, 1999:_

"Oh, I'm so happy right now, I'm not even going to speak of the suddenness of the whole thing," Molly sighed, pinning one final tiny flower into Ginny's hair. "The war's over, you know, there's no need to marry so quickly now."

"Well, eet eez not so queek when you theenk about zee three years zey were together," Fleur offered, cradling Victoire gently against her shoulder.

"And it definitely isn't quick when you put it side by side with Remus and Tonks," Hermione laughed.

Molly rolled her eyes. "Yes, I think they won the 'quickest engagement and wedding ever' award."

"Unlike Percy, who, contrary to Harry's way of thinking," Audrey commented, "at this rate will keep me waiting for another five or six years, until he has gold in the bank again."

"You need to spring it on him," Ginny advised. "Why do you think I did the proposing? Harry would've held off for, like, ten years."

The door pushed open and Teddy came scrambling into the room, Arthur desperately calling out after him. "Gee!" the little boy exclaimed, reaching up for Ginny. "Gee, me!"

"Hi, Teddy," Ginny greeted with a laugh, swinging him up into her arms. "Don't you look like the handsome little boy today."

Teddy snuggled happily into her shoulder, casting a dark glower at Victoire. "No Vic," he said decisively, making a push-away motion with his hands in Fleur's general direction. "Me."

The women all burst out laughing. "Oh, you aren't jealous of her at all, you little imp, you," Ginny said, kissing his cheek. "So where did you escape from?"

"He escaped from me," her father replied, showing up at the door. "Can I have him back before his godfather goes mad because I lost him?"

* * *

"You really think it's going to work?" Kingsley asked Bill as the men were gathered in another room.

"Why not?" Harry spoke up, fiddling with his tie. "It's worked for Muggles for centuries."

"But paper money?..." Kingsley muttered. "It's going to be hard to sell to the public, that."

"Aw, you're one of the best Ministers in recent history, Kingsley, you've proven yourself," Arthur spoke up, coming back in with Teddy. "You shouldn't have hardly any problems at all. I've tamed your wild beast, by the way, Harry."

"Oh, thanks," Harry said gratefully, taking Teddy back.

"How are we supposed to make the money unmagickable?" Kingsley continued. "I'm not doing another goblin-run bank, look how Gringotts' ended."

"Are we still shop-talking in here?" Arthur asked.

"And Muggle currency? That's downright absurd, it's impossible, it's..."

"Going to make our people blend in more," Harry pointed out. "Do you realize how many Muggles are suspicious when their own countrymen don't know how to use the system?"

"But that means the entire world has to relearn currency!" Bill exclaimed.

"They'll have to any way," Harry said logically. "We aren't going back to the Gringotts' system."

"Oh, would you all just stop shop-talking!" Arthur said. "This is a _wedding_, for Merlin's sake! Leave the work at the office!"

* * *

"So, Harry," Ginny asked sleepily as she snuggled into his side. "Are you sure you don't want to come to training camp with me?"

Harry smiled slightly. "No, not to training camp, Ginny. "Kingsley wants to go over some stuff with me. I promise we'll come with you on tour," he added, nuzzling her face affectionately.

"You'd better."

* * *

"Harry, I've been thinking," Kingsley said quietly, pulling Harry off to the side at the Burrow one evening. "What you did for Teddy – giving up your education, I mean – it was a noble thing. And I have to confess, I hate you for it." When Harry looked at him with a frown, Kingsley continued. "A lot of the best Aurors were lost in the war. Moody, Tonks, Dawlish... And with me leaving for the Minister's position, we're short a lot of Aurors. Moody always said he'd take you on the second you submitted that application, and Moody never said that about a whole lot of people. A very select few, who turned out to be some of the best Aurors that the Ministry's ever had – Frank and Alice Longbottom, Tonks... those are the only people I remember him saying that about." He paused. "Any way, I was thinking that we might be able to work out some sort of arrangement. I really don't want to lose a Moody-approved Auror – from a purely professional point of view – for a boy who _will _eventually grow up."

Harry sighed. "Thanks for the thought, Kingsley, but – "

"No, no, listen to me," Kingsley interrupted. "I know Ginny's on the circuit, and I know you're going with her. I know that with the streak of loyalty that you have in you, it'll be years before you'd come on full-time. I can live with that. But promise me you'll give it serious thought, Harry? I've just asked Ron and Neville to come on for the purposes of tracking down the remaining Death-Eaters, if any of you want to stay on past that, you're welcome to. You can do your training in off season, whenever you're in England... Probably will take a good five, six years, any way, before you're fully certified for long term employment."

Harry's answer was interrupted by Bill's sharp voice saying, "Don't you _dare_, Ted Lupin!" Teddy's whimpering cries met his ears, and Harry took off for the sitting room to scoop up his teary-eyed godson.

"What happened?" Harry asked, rocking Teddy lightly to calm him down. Bill had gathered Victoire protectively into his arms, still giving Teddy the evil eye.

"Nothing, thankfully, but he was looking suspiciously close to dumping Victoire out of the bassinet," Bill said darkly.

Harry had to bite back the laugh, knowing that this wasn't funny to Bill. "Bill, he's only 15 months. I'm sure he didn't mean it on purpose."

"Oh, he meant it," Bill muttered in reply, cuddling Victoire even closer.

* * *

"Like a mother bear, that one," Harry said with a grin, as Ginny howled with laughter at the recounting later that week. She had come home from training camp that night, and had insisted on a blow-by-blow account of the happenings of the last month.

"Poor boy, you were probably traumatized, weren't you?" she asked Teddy adoringly, lifting him up into her lap. "First time in your entire life anybody's said a sharp word to you. Did he really insist?"

"'Oh, he meant it,'" Harry imitated Bill's dark mutter. Ginny buried her laughter into his neck, snuggling deeper into his arms.

"That is too funny."

"He's never going to let Teddy near her again," Harry laughed.

"So what did Kingsley want to discuss with you?" Ginny asked.

Harry sighed. "He wanted to talk me into Auror's training."

Ginny gasped and twisted around, excitement in her eyes. "Oh, he _didn't_! Harry, that's amazing! Without NEWTs? I hope you told him yes. You didn't tell him no," she said accusingly.

"Actually, I never gave him an answer, that was right when the plot against Victoire was discovered," Harry said, catching Teddy with his spare arm as the toddler tried eagerly to clamber up onto the free space on his lap. "I'm not sure, though, Ginny, that it'll work."

Ginny sighed and patted his cheek. "Oh, Harry, you have such a martyr complex," she said affectionately. "He won't be a baby forever, and I won't be playing forever. I don't need you to come along everywhere. And I'm sure Kingsley would willingly work around schedules for training. After all, Moody liked you, and Moody didn't like a whole lot of people." She kissed him lightly. "Tell him yes. You're going to regret it for the rest of your life if you don't."

* * *

"Our world has money again!" came the victorious crow of the Keeper Kathy Rainer's husband, Nate, as he entered the families' box at the game in Scotland. He held out a handful of bills and coins. "Look at it! Isn't it beautiful?"

Harry laughed, rolling the spare Quaffle across the room for Teddy to chase. "I told Kingsley it would go over well. Oh, Ginny, that Bludger was headed right for you! How do you not notice that?!" he exclaimed as Ginny got knocked to the ground by a Bludger striking her side.

"Oh, well, she's out now," Nate sighed, pocketing his beloved money.

* * *

"Ow..." Ginny moaned, leaning against him as she held her side gingerly. "Ow..."

"How did you _not_ notice that Bludger?" Harry laughed, kissing her forehead tenderly. Teddy was fast asleep against his other shoulder, little arms wrapped around his neck.

"Ow, that's not where it hurts..." she groaned.

Harry just bit back another snicker.

* * *

"Play!" Teddy whined insistently, tugging the leg of Harry's trousers. "Ree, play koff!"

"Fine, there you go," Harry said distractedly, kicking away the Quaffle. "I'm starting to think we've got to buy you one of those for Christmas. We can't keep stealing the Harpies' spare." He returned his attention to the textbook in front of him. The bump of the Quaffle against his leg distracted him again. Harry kicked it away again, and heard Teddy shrieking with laughter. Barely seconds later, the Quaffle had landed back against his ankle. A third time, he kicked it off, sending more power into it this time. The Quaffle hit his shin not long after that.

"All right, what are you doing?" Harry finally asked, turning around after he'd kicked it away again. Teddy was standing calmly at the other end of the room, grinning at him as he pushed at the air and sent the Quaffle flying back in the opposite direction. "Show-off," he muttered with a smile, going to scoop up his godson indulgently. "Just have to showcase the new skills, don't you?"

* * *

"All right, Ginny, I have to know," George said as the young Potter family came into the kitchen at the Burrow at Christmastime. "How do you _not_ see the Bludger hurtling towards you?"

Harry snickered, arm around her waist as he let Teddy down. "I've been asking that for two months and I still haven't gotten an answer."

"Hey, you stay away from her!" Bill called warningly as Teddy took off to the sitting room, where Fleur had Victoire lying on the floor on her stomach, playing.

"Oh, Bill, she eez _parfaitement_ safe," Fleur called back, smiling when Teddy crouched down and reached a hand out cautiously to touch the baby.

"If he puts so much as a hair out of place on her..." Bill muttered to Harry threateningly.

"Oh, Bill, you're such a mother bear," Ginny laughed as everybody made their way into the sitting room. "What are you going to do once she's a teenager?"

"Lock her away," Bill said unhesitatingly. "Kill any boy who gets within a hundred feet of her. I've got it all planned out, if you're interested."

Teddy let out a wounded cry, falling back on his bottom as he yanked his hand back from Victoire. Glaring at her, he got back to his feet and retreated to the comfort and safety of Harry's arms, muttering, "No Vic," darkly under his breath as he held out his hand for Ginny to kiss better.

Fleur burst out laughing. "Bill, I do not theenk you need to worry about Victoire," she gasped out. "She weell fight back."

"What happened?" Ginny asked, examining the reddened fingers on her step-godson. "What happened to you, Teddy?"

Harry looked at it momentarily and then laughed. "She's teething, isn't she?"

"She bit him!" Ginny said indignantly. "Oh, you poor boy," she cooed, taking Teddy from Harry. "Come with a peace offering and get so violently rebuffed..."

* * *

"Look!" Teddy giggled from the floor, tugging at Harry's jeans. "Look, Ree! Look, koff!"

"Yes, I see your Quaffle, Teddy," Harry said distractedly, still trying to finish the current chapter in his textbook. "I've seen your Quaffle every day for the last month. Go play. Let Harry finish this chapter and then I promise I'll play with you."

"No, play me now!" Teddy insisted, pulling himself up onto Harry's lap with some difficulty. He pushed away the textbook and then balanced himself upright on Harry's legs, grabbing onto his godfather's t-shirt to keep his balance. "Play now, Ree," he ordered. "No book. Play koff."

"Not now, Teddy," Harry repeated tiredly, sitting Teddy down on his lap and pulling his textbook towards him again. "Do you want me to cuddle with you while I finish reading?"

"No, want play now!" Teddy repeated, though he settled back against Harry's chest and grabbed hold of his fingers.

"Not now," Harry said again.

"What read?" Teddy asked, leaning forward interestedly. "Story?"

"No, I'm studying for my Auror's certification," Harry replied.

"What?" Teddy asked again.

"One day, when you're a lot bigger, Harry's going to hunt bad guys, Teddy darling," Ginny replied, entering the hotel room. "Not done your studying for the day yet?" she asked lightly, giving Harry a kiss in greeting. "Come on, Teddy. You want to play Quaffle for a little while?"

"Play koff, Gee!" Teddy shrieked, releasing Harry and reaching for Ginny. "No Ree. No fun."

Ginny laughed and scooped him up with his beloved Quaffle. "We'll be outside, Harry. Come join us when you're done, No Fun."

Harry wrinkled his nose at her and chucked a spare t-shirt towards her as she dodged with a grin.

* * *

"Oh, he is too _cute_!" Rachel, the Seeker, exclaimed as Teddy dashed back to Ginny, depositing the Quaffle in front of her with a broad grin. "Look at him, the Quaffle's about as big as his whole top half!"

"How old is he again?" Olivia, one of the other Chasers, asked.

"He'll be 2 in April," Ginny replied with a smile, rolling the Quaffle away again. Teddy giggled and went after it. He tripped over a pebble in his path and seemed to stop for a moment, trying to decide whether crying would get him more affection than getting up again. Ginny laughed. "Yep. Definitely got Tonks in him, that one." She shook her head and got to her feet when he decided to cry. "Oh, come here, you," she cooed, settling him into her arms securely. "Let Ginny see where you scraped it."

"You must've been young when you had him," Kathy commented.

"Well, actually, I didn't. He's Harry's godson," Ginny said, examining the scraped hand and arm attentively. "His parents were killed at Hogwarts in the final battle two years ago. He was only three weeks old. But yeah, Harry was 17 at the time, which made me 16." She tugged lightly at a lock of green hair, smiling when he swatted her hand crankily. "His dad was one of our Defence professors, an old friend of Harry's dad and godfather. His mum was an Auror."

"What's with the rotating hair colours?" Isabel, one of the Beaters, asked. "It's not often you see a 2-year-old with green hair."

Ginny sighed. "He's Metamorphmagus. Tonks – his mum – was one, too."

_

* * *

_

April 3, 2000

Teddy growled irritably at Harry as he kicked him again.

"Aw, stop it, you little nutcase," Harry sighed, flinching when one sneakered foot made full, direct contact with his lungs – hard.

"Nooooo!" Teddy wailed, fighting against him furiously. "No, down! Go home!"

"Ted Remus Lupin, you shut up and behave right now, or Merlin help me, I will – "

"Ah, the terrible twos have hit, have they?" Andromeda and Molly both asked with a laugh. Harry only glared at them and willingly passed him off to Andromeda, muttering darkly under his breath.

"I hate to tell you this, Harry, but it's more like the terrible twos, threes and fours," Molly said with a compassionate pat on his shoulder. "Where's Ginny?"

"Got the flu, she's at home sleeping," Harry replied. "Flu ran through the whole team this week, she's the last to cave. Teddy and I had it last week."

"Ah, so you were the perpetrators," George said wisely, coming in with Katie Bell not far behind.

"Hey, Katie, what are you doing here?" Harry greeted in surprise.

Katie smiled in a sort of embarrassed manner. "Well, George and I have started seeing each other, and, well..."

"Really?" Harry asked interestedly.

* * *

"Arry," Teddy whined, tugging at Harry's jeans. "Arry..."

"Quit whining, Teddy, and maybe I'll listen," Harry replied tersely. He caught a glimpse of Bill smirking from across the room, Victoire sitting up in his lap like a prim, pristine little angel. "Don't get too cocky, Weasley, I'll be smirking at you next year when she goes demon on you."

"Arry..." There was a brief lull in the whining as Harry continued the conversation with Ron and Hermione. "Arry!"

"Ow!" Harry yelped as he felt a sharp shock shoot through his body. "Damn it, Teddy..." he groaned as he lifted the toddler up. "You have to stop doing that, you're going to kill me. What's your problem?"

Yawning, Teddy just settled down against his chest and closed his eyes, popping his thumb into his mouth sleepily. "Night-night."

_

* * *

_

May 2, 2000

"So are you going to sit still this year?" Harry asked Teddy as he tucked in the dress shirt. "C'mere, let me try and straighten out your hair."

"You'd be better served to straighten out your own hair, Harry," Ginny said pointedly, coming in. "And tuck in your shirt."

"It doesn't straighten, Ginny," Harry replied, tucking in his own shirt.

* * *

"Oh, he's grown so much this year," McGonagall sighed, as Teddy glowered at her from his spot nestled into Harry's side. "My goodness, child, what is your problem?" she asked with a slight smile.

"He's got an attitude, that's what," Harry replied. Sighing, the group slowly dispersed to their seats again. "Hey, Ron, Nev," he greeted tiredly as the two young temporary Aurors showed up just as Kingsley was beginning the ceremony. "Had a long night?"

"Chasing Roldophus and Rabastan Lestrange halfway to Atlantis and back last night," Ron muttered darkly, dropping into the empty seat next to Hermione. She gave a light, gentle squeeze to his knee in sympathy. "Didn't even catch them in the end. I'm telling you, Harry, you can bloody well have this badge, I can't do it any more."

"Well, stick with it for a while longer, all right?" Harry replied tersely, handing Teddy a toy in an attempt to quiet him when the toddler started to open his mouth to scream unhappily. "Kingsley wants me to actually do training, and I can't be doing training all the time with this one hanging about." Teddy twisted around and glowered at him, as if he realized Harry was talking about him.

"I thought Andromeda was out of hospital," Neville asked with a frown. "Didn't she say she would keep him?"

Harry and Ginny both sighed. "Not until he's older, I don't want to," Harry replied. "She's not as young as she used to be."

"She's not that old, Harry, Mum and Dad are older than her," Ron pointed out.

"It's too much work for her right now, to have him 24/7," Ginny finished softly. "She still relapses fairly often."

* * *

"Ginny!" Luna was calling excitedly over the noise of people departing and students returning to the castle. "Ginny, over here!"

"Go on, then, I'll watch him," Harry told her, giving her a quick kiss before he took off after Teddy, who was dashing through the grounds, taking advantage of his newly-gained freedom. "Teddy, come back here before you break something!"

Teddy stopped at the steps leading up to Dumbledore's tomb, one foot on the first step and hands supporting himself on a pillar. "Ree, come!" he called plaintively. "Ree!"

"All right, all right, I'm here," Harry said, lifting him up when Teddy reached for him. "Come to say hi, have you?" he asked softly, taking him around to the side of the tomb, where a fine golden plaque marked their final resting place. "You miss them?" Harry set him down on the ground, sitting on the edge of the white marble ledge to watch him.

Teddy twisted around to look at him, blue eyes wide and suddenly the picture of perfection. Reaching out, he touched the careful, elegant etching of _Remus John Lupin: March 10, 1960 – May 2, 1998_. For a moment, he seemed frozen in surprise. Then a happy smile and a laugh passed over his face, squealing and jumping in excitement. Pulling his hand away, the excitement fell and he looked at Harry, wide-eyed and teary. Then he tentatively pressed on the etching of _Nymphadora Lilias Lupin: June 30, 1973 – May 2, 1998_. Again, the smile and laughs escaped. Taking his hand off the plaque slightly brought on the tears again, and he quickly returned it, putting the other back on Remus' name.

"What are you doing there, Teddy?" Harry asked with a frown, getting up. Carefully, he crouched down behind his godson, trying to figure out what he was doing, and slid his hands slowly beneath Teddy's, seeing if there was some sort of trigger on the plaque. He didn't think that Kingsley would've allowed such a spell...

He felt nothing but cool metal beneath his palms, and careful inspection, despite Teddy's cries and pleads and attempts to pull his hands away, revealed nothing out of the ordinary. It was just an ordinary plaque, nothing magical about it – except for Teddy. "All right, Teddy, come on, let's go find Ginny," he sighed, lifting up the boy and effectively pulling his hands away from the plaques, which Teddy had jealously reclaimed.

"No, no, back, back, Ree!" Teddy pleaded, fighting tooth and nail against his godfather's arms. "Back! Stay!" Bursting into tears, he kicked and struck Harry's arm again and again. "Back! Come back!"

"I don't think that's healthy for you, Teddy, whatever was going on there," Harry said quietly, tightening his hold on the toddler.

But Teddy's sobs still tore at his heart as the boy buried his face into Harry's shoulder and cried.

"No... back..."

* * *

"It was really weird, Ginny, I don't know what he thought it was doing," Harry murmured quietly, as he was rocking Teddy to sleep. The poor child had cried right through the day, still pleading to go back and refusing all attempts to distract him.

"Maybe it _was_ doing something," Ginny murmured back, rubbing Teddy's head comfortingly. "You just couldn't see it. Whatever it was, it made him happy, didn't it?"

"But – "

"Harry," Ginny said, caressing his cheek briefly. "You of all people know that there are deeper magics than anything Hogwarts teaches. Not everything has to have You-Know-Who's handiwork waiting in the shadows nearby."

Harry sighed. "It wasn't healthy, Ginny. He'd have stayed there all day and all night, without a scrap of food, a minute of sleep. I could tell. Things like that... it's like the Mirror of Erised. Happy though it might make him, it's not reality."

"Go back, Ree..." Teddy yawned, wrapping his arms around Harry's neck. "Go back Mama. Go back Da... play them..."

Ginny's eyes widened and she whispered, "Merlin's beard, Harry... He saw them."

"Not just saw them," Harry said softly, "he remembered them. Or at least what they would've been."


	6. The Sparing of Malfoy

**Chapter 5: The Sparing Of Malfoy**

"Harry, you're analyzing too much," Kingsley said as he successfully blocked Harry's curse. "Don't take so much time to think. They're not going to wait for you to finish deciding."

"I _know_, Kingsley," Harry growled, defending himself against Kingsley's return curse.

"Then why are you hesitating?" Kingsley demanded, lowering his wand. "Merlin, boy..." He let out a startled yell when Harry's jinx caught him full front and threw him ten feet back.

"Constant vigiliance, Kingsley," Harry replied with a grin, dodging the hex Kingsley threw back at him. "You ought to know better than to fall for that one."

"Whippersnapper," Kingsley said teasingly, the battle heating up as the two started getting into some serious action.

"Old man," Harry returned.

* * *

"Good gracious, guys, what _have _you been doing in here?" Ginny asked in astonishment as she walked into the Aurors' training room at the Ministry to see it torn apart by spells.

Teddy laughed, coming in ahead of Ginny. "Big mess."

"We've been training, Ginny," Kingsley said with a wry laugh, getting to his feet. "Oh, there's glass on the floor, probably don't want him – "

Harry caught him as the boy slipped on the floor, just before he landed full-force into the shards. "Gotcha, you slippery little guy," he laughed, hoisting him onto his shoulders. "All right, let's go for some lunch, yeah? Kingsley, you want to join us?"

"Thanks, Harry, but maybe some other time," Kingsley replied, giving Teddy's messy light brown hair a good tousle before he headed for the door. "Got a lot of things to finish up. Being Minister isn't as easy as it looks."

"Arry, go lunch!" Teddy pleaded, holding onto chunks of Harry's hair with both fists. "Hungry."

"Yeah, yeah, we're going, Teddy," Harry laughed. "Come on, Ginny. Where do you feel like going?"

"Well, Hannah Abbott's just taken over the Leaky Cauldron, it's the grand reopening today," Ginny suggested. "Watch his head, Harry," she warned as he ducked down obligingly so that Teddy's head cleared the doorway.

"So you want to go to the Leaky Cauldron?" Harry guessed.

"Good guess," Ginny laughed. "Actually, Neville and Luna and Ron and Hermione are going to meet us for lunch as well. We'd best get a move on, though, before he faints of hunger, that one."

"Hungry, Arry," Teddy repeated with a laugh. "No, stay up!" he squealed in protest as Harry was pulling him off his shoulders.

* * *

"Hey, guys, over here!" Neville called, waving his arm in the air as Harry and Ginny arrived in the Leaky Cauldron, which was enjoying its boost in business after two long years of near-death.

"Hey, Nev," Harry greeted, letting Ginny slide into the chair next to him as he Summoned a nearby toddler's chair for Teddy. "Got a slow day, I take it?"

"Aw, by now most of the halfway intelligent Death-Eaters have gone far underground," Neville sighed. "I don't think we're going to catch any more."

"What about Malfoys?" Luna asked. "The Malfoys ought to be in Azkaban now, shouldn't they?"

Ron grumbled under his breath. "Oh, those slimy little turncoats? They went into hiding the day after the Battle of Hogwarts. Hiding just as much from the other Death-Eaters as from us. Haven't been able to track them down at all."

"Aw, it's just as well, now he's out of our hair for good," Harry sighed.

"Arry, hungry!" Teddy insisted for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Hi, Harry! Hi, Ginny!" Hannah greeted as she appeared at the table, blonde curls bouncing around her lively face. "It's nice to see you could make it today! There's some amazing chicken soup being made right now, if you're interested. Comes with salad and a roll, plus your drink."

"I'll have some of that," they all said immediately.

"Me, too!" Teddy announced, making laughs erupt around the table.

"Ugh, soup would end up all over your clothes and not in your stomach," Harry muttered pragmatically. "Try again, kid."

"There's some spaghetti and sauce," Hannah offered.

"S'getti!" Teddy shrieked excitedly. "Yeah, s'getti!"

Hannah laughed. "That'll be right out, then."

* * *

July 25, 2000:

Ginny was gone for the summer's training camp again, and Harry didn't envy her one little bit, with the wettest July on record. Teddy was getting antsy, being inside all day, so when the sun burst through the clouds one day, Harry took full advantage of the opportunity.

"Out, out, get out!" he laughed, shooing Teddy outside as he kicked the Quaffle out the door. "The rain's stopped!"

Teddy shrieked excitedly and dashed out the door, immediately finding the biggest, deepest, dirtiest puddle in the yard. Giggling madly, he slogged through it after his Quaffle, which was floating serenely atop the water. "All wet! Me all wet!"

"Well, so much for wellies," Harry sighed as he watched the water get sucked right through the tops of the rubber boots.

Teddy yelped, stopping in the middle of the puddle as he nearly pitched forward under the water. Righting himself, he tugged with his foot at something. "Arry, help," he called. "Arry, help!"

"What is it, Teddy?" Harry asked, lifting him up out of the puddle, only to meet resistance and then releasing his godson's feet from his water-logged boots. "Ah, you were stuck in the mud, were you?"

Teddy's eyes grew as wide as saucers as the water closed in over the tops of his boots. "No! No!" he cried out, trying to re-enter the puddle to retrieve them. "Arry, get!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get them, don't worry," Harry laughed, removing Teddy from the vicinity. Teddy shed his rain slicker, which hadn't done anything to keep him dry in his little swim, and started to head for the water again. "Stay out of it." Reaching in, Harry yanked the boots out with an ugly-sounding squelch and emptied them, dropping the pair to the ground.

"What in the world is going on here?" came Andromeda's incredulous question as she came up the walkway. "Did you bring him out without any wellies or a rain jacket, Harry?" she asked, noticing Teddy's bare feet and soaked clothes.

"He had them on," Harry said indignantly as Andromeda scooped up her grandson to take him inside again.

"No wellies, Gran'm," Teddy giggled, eyes sparkling as he looked at Harry daringly.

"Harry, really," Andromeda said reproachfully. "You ought to know better, he's going to catch his death of cold out here, wet like that."

Teddy sent Harry a mischievous grin from over Andromeda's shoulder as his godfather sighed and shook his head, picking up the abandoned items to go after them.

"He had them on..."

* * *

Andromeda was still muttering darkly under her breath that afternoon as Harry left for the Ministry.

* * *

"Plotting against me, that one," Harry muttered to Ron. "It's a conspiracy to get me in as much trouble with Andromeda as he can possibly manage."

"Hey, Harry, you ready?" Kingsley asked as he entered the Aurors' Office. "This is it. This is the big day."

Harry sent him a smile. "Yeah, that it is. You said it'd take years and years. It's only been one."

"Your sole mission in life seems to be to defy the odds," Kingsley replied with a laugh. "C'mon."

* * *

Night had fallen by the time Harry was done his certification test – passing with flying colours, might he add. The only downside was that Ginny wouldn't be back to celebrate with him for another two weeks. And he didn't have a good feeling about the fact that the lights were still on at midnight...

"Andromeda, you still up?" Harry called softly as he entered the house as quietly as possible.

He heard voices coming from the kitchen, low, shaky, frightened voices. Drawing his wand, he advanced slowly.

"Please, Annie..." a woman's voice was pleading. "Tell him to call them off. Please..."

"Why should I?" Andromeda's cold voice answered. "You supported You-Know-Who. You ought to pay the price. Your lot killed my daughter and her husband, and would've just as soon killed my grandson."

"Annie, you don't understand..." A dry, racking sob escaped. "Please, Annie, you were always the kinder one... We won't survive Azkaban. I betrayed them. I let the Potter boy continue to pretend to be dead so that I could find Draco... He is so weak, Annie, and so scared... I can't send my son to Azkaban, I can't..."

Harry frowned suddenly: it was Narcissa Malfoy, come to beg aid and mercy from the one sister she had left. She wanted him to call off Ron and Neville's manhunt for her family. She just wanted to return to a life she knew, the life she'd had during the peace years.

"What's going on here?" he asked, entering the kitchen to find Narcissa Malfoy, her former elegance destroyed by two years of underground living, kneeling on the floor, begging Andromeda with Lucius still giving Andromeda distasteful glowers and Draco's head dropped, eyes focusing on the floor. "What are you doing here?" he asked coolly, pretending not to have heard her tearful request. He wanted to hear her say it to him. Ask _him_, not go through a mediator.

"I..." she appeared to falter, freezing when Draco got to his feet. "Draco, darling..."

"I'll handle this, Mother," he murmured quietly, standing face-to-face with Harry. "Call off the Aurors. Get us a pardon."

"Why?" Harry asked evenly. "If anybody should go to Azkaban, it's you."

"Mother saved your life," Draco replied. "The war wouldn't be over if it weren't for her."

"So I get _her_ a pardon. Why shouldn't the rest of you go?"

Draco froze. He had no comeback to that. He and his father were both guilty as sin of Death-Eater activities and he knew that there was no sliding out of that fact. They had the marks to prove it.

There was silence for a long time, as the Auror and the Death-Eater stared at each other, Narcissa sobbing quietly on the floor. Finally, Lucius spoke.

"Narcissa, there is no hope for the Death-Eaters. Our names and our faces are well-known to the world." He got to his feet and pushed his son out of the way. "Draco, tend to your mother. Potter," he said quietly, looking at Harry. "I am a Death-Eater. I have been since I was 16. I never swayed, I never once regretted. I still don't. But my wife was never one of them, and my son was forced in. I will go quietly – "

"Lucius, no!" Narcissa cried out.

"Father – "

"Enough!" Lucius roared sharply, shooting warning glances at his wife and son. "You will not interrupt!" He turned back to Harry. "As I was saying, I will go quietly. I will take the punishment for serving my master. But call off the hunt for Narcissa and Draco."

"Why?" Harry asked calmly, never once breaking gaze with Lucius, who drew himself up indignantly and sputtered,

"Haven't you been listening, boy?"

"I have been, and I hear nothing but the usual Malfoy waffle: 'Do this, do that.' I don't hear anything vaguely resembling a request, just an attempt to coerce me into doing your bidding."

Lucius paused, apparently doing some hard thinking.

"Lucius, please..." Narcissa begged softly. "Don't do this."

"Enough, Narcissa!" Lucius replied tersely. Then he looked at Harry again and took a deep breath. Harry could see Andromeda's face actually looking shocked as Lucius began to speak again. "Would you please call off the Aurors?"

"That's better. Now once more, tell me why I should pardon them?"

Lucius sighed, narrowing his eyes at Harry and throwing out an arm to stop Draco when he stepped forward to interfere again. "Because my wife was never a Death-Eater and you owe your life to her."

"I knew that already, the Aurors have been called off of her for a week. Why should I call them off your son?"

"Because his aunt and I forced him into it," Lucius replied quietly. "He was only doing our bidding under coercion."

"Father..."

"Haven't I told you a thousand times, _enough_, Draco?!" Lucius snapped. "Go tend to your mother." He looked back at Harry a third time, waiting. "Well?"

"You understand that you're looking at a choice of life imprisonment or the Dementor's Kiss for voluntary admission to Death-Eater activity?" Harry asked quietly. Lucius nodded once, curtly. "You understand that while I can call off the Aurors, I cannot stop the vigilantes?" Again, he nodded once. Turning to Draco, Harry said, "You know if there's ever a breath of Death-Eater activity around here again, you will be the first one to Azkaban?" There was a long pause.

"Draco, answer the question," Lucius said sharply. Finally, Draco nodded.

"Then, yes, I will issue his pardon," Harry said, relieving Lucius of his wand. "I would suggest you two stay well out of sight for a few days," he said to Draco and Narcissa, as his old schoolboy rival was helping his heartbroken mother to her feet again.

There was another long silence before Draco muttered, "Thanks."

* * *

"Harry, you didn't have to do that. That boy was well aware he deserved to go to prison," Andromeda murmured quietly the next morning once Harry had returned from transporting Lucius to the Aurors' holding cell to await his trial.

"And he knows now that if he doesn't reform, he has two options," Harry replied quietly, heading for Teddy's room to retrieve the toddler when he woke up and started calling.

"I am still amazed that you got Lucius Malfoy to say please and ask for something!" Andromeda called after him. "Has never done that in his life and I've known him for 56 years!"

_

* * *

_

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

_"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now..."_

_"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead –"_

Harry sighed as he remembered the sound of a mother begging for her child's life. Oddly enough, the tone in Lucius Malfoy's voice had betrayed a father begging for his family's sparing.

"Arry, eat breffist," Teddy reminded him childishly. "Arry, hungry."

Startled, Harry dragged himself back to present. "All right, Teddy, all right, let's have some breakfast."

"Arry, what this?" Teddy asked, pulling Harry's badge off his cloak. "Arry, what this?" he repeated, holding out the badge.

"That's my Auror's badge, Teddy. That means I'm an Auror," Harry said with a smile. "Can you give that back to me? It's not even a whole 24 hours old." He held out his empty hand. "Give it back."

Giggling, Teddy said, "Arry Auror?"

"Yeah, that's right," Harry replied. "Give it back."

Teddy grinned at him and dropped it into his hand. "Give back."

* * *

"Teddy, darling, I don't know where you get all this energy, but Grandmum can't keep up with you!" Andromeda laughed as she dropped into an armchair in exhaustion. "I think it's time for Grandmum to stop and have a nap."

"No naps!" Teddy shrieked, running off to fetch his Quaffle. "Big boys no naps!"

"Oh, you're not that big yet," Harry laughed, hoisting Teddy into the arm with one arm. "C'mon, naptime."

"No naps!" Teddy insisted.

"Yes naps!" Harry replied, dropping his godson into his crib.

"No naps!"

"Yes naps!"

* * *

"Don't run so far ahead, Teddy darling," Andromeda called. Teddy paused and waited at the corner of the street for them, laughing and hopping in place.

It had been two weeks, and Ginny was coming home today, following a publicity signing at Quality Quidditch Supplies with the Harpies.

Just as they were opening the door to the shop, Harry saw Draco pass, walking rapidly and eyes still jumping around nervously. His pardon had not been taken well by the public, and Harry was still getting a lot of flak from vigilantes for it.

"Potter," he greeted tersely, pausing momentarily.

"Malfoy," Harry returned with equal curtness. Draco continued on his mission to be in and out of Diagon Alley as fast and as quietly as possible seconds later when Teddy began pulling at Harry's jeans. "What is it, Teddy?"

"Go! Go see Ginny!"


	7. To Life

**Chapter 6: To Life**

_August 20, 2003:_

"Teddy!" Harry called out the door. "Teddy, come on, we gotta get going!"

"You'd better not be jumping off the roof again, Ted Lupin!" Ginny called warningly.

"No, I'm not!" 5-year-old Teddy said indignantly, dashing inside again. "Why are we going to the Burrow again? We were just there last week."

"Because Bill and Fleur are bringing baby Louis, remember?" Ginny replied. "Victoire and Nikki's new baby brother?"

"Come on, then. Leave the Quaffle at home, would you?" Harry said.

"Oh, fine," Teddy huffed, dropping his Quaffle to the floor. "Do we _have_ to go by Floo? I don't like Floo. Can't we fly?"

"I'm not flying all the way to Ottery St Catchpole!" Ginny exclaimed.

* * *

"He cries all day and all night," 4-year-old Victoire complained to her aunts. "But he is sort of cute. Cuter than Nikki was."

Fleur laughed, cradling her two-day-old son carefully in her arms. Saying something to Victoire lightly in French, she looked back to the rest of the women gathered around.

"She's been a right little mother, that one," Bill said with a laugh, holding up 18-month-old Dominique between his legs.

Teddy, meanwhile, was watching Louis with a slight territorial expression. "I'm not the only boy anymore," he said sullenly.

"No, Teddy, no you're not," Harry replied, smiling as his godson sniffed in discontent and flopped back against his legs. "You're not going to be an only child for much longer, either, you know," he teased. "You might as well get used to it, you're going to have to share the limelight."

_

* * *

_

September 15, 2003:

"Harry," Ron moaned as he examined his reflection. "Harry, how do you survive it?"

Harry laughed with George and Bill, who had Louis nestled against his shoulder, while Arthur and Percy shook their head affectionately.

"Not funny, I'm panicking! Why am I panicking?"

"Because she's never going to forgive you if you mess something up today, Ron," George said seriously.

There came a knock at the door, and Harry went to open it, finding Ginny standing outside with Teddy.

"I'm a _boy_, I want to stay here!" he announced, slipping inside.

"He's feeling a little overwhelmed by estrogen," Ginny laughed, letting Harry solicit a tender kiss. "See you later. How's he holding up?" she asked softly, casting a quick glance at Ron, who was still whimpering to his brothers. "Hermione wants to know."

"He's being Ron, he'll be fine," Harry laughed. "You feeling all right now?"

Ginny smiled and patted his cheek lightly. "I'm fine, Harry, it was just a bit of morning sickness."

"That's not what you said this morning when you were moaning pitifully in the bathroom about dying," Harry teased.

Ginny laughed. "Ask George what Katie did to him this morning. You'll be glad I was only moaning pitifully." With that, she gave him one last quick kiss, blew a kiss to Teddy and disappeared down the hall again.

Harry closed the door. "So what _did_ Katie do to you this morning?" he asked George, who groaned and shook his head.

"I can't speak of it," he said.

"Why not?"

"Because she threatened to do it again if I did," George muttered.

_

* * *

_

March 25, 2003:

"But I don't understand, Nan, how does the baby get out?" Teddy asked again, pushing Victoire out of the way.

"Ow, don't push, Teddy!" Victoire protested, pushing him back.

"When you're older, perhaps, Teddy, Harry will tell you," Molly laughed. "Victoire, be a lady."

"But I want to know, Nan," Teddy insisted.

"But he pushed me first, Nan. Daddy says I don't have to take it from him."

"Come now, Teddy, we have to leave," Andromeda said from the doorway. "It's time for bed."

"But Grandmum, how does the baby get out? Is it by magic, like it Apparates or something?"

"Oh, trust me, Teddy, darling, there's nothing magic about it," Andromeda sighed. "Come."

"But I want to know, Grandmum..."

* * *

Andromeda sighed as she tucked Teddy into bed a little tighter. She'd forgotten how inquisitive little children were... and how much energy they still took.

"Grandmum?" he asked sleepily.

"Yes, Teddy?" she replied, brushing a lock of navy hair away from his eyes.

"How long does it take for the baby to get out?"

"However long it takes, Teddy dear," she said with a smile.

"Grandmum?"

"Yes, Teddy?"

Teddy sat up and looked at her. "Harry says that one day, when I'm older and you're feeling better, I'm going to come live here. Does that mean that I don't get to see them any more?"

Andromeda sat down on the edge of his bed. "No, of course not, Teddy," she said, letting him cuddle up against her side. "You'll still see them plenty. After all, you live with Harry and Ginny now and you still see me, right? Right now, you can't live with me because I can't properly take care of a little boy like Harry and Ginny can."

"Grandmum, can I ask one more question?"

Andromeda sighed tiredly. "One more, Teddy, and then I'm going to bed. Your questions take too much energy."

"How did the baby get in?"

"Goodnight, Teddy," Andromeda laughed immediately.

* * *

Andromeda was startled awake in the wee hours of the morning by the sounds of the front door opening and closing. Groaning as she sat up slowly, she drew her wand from the bedside table. "Who's there?" she called.

"It's me," came Harry's soft voice in the doorway.

"And?" Andromeda asked, setting down her wand again. "She's had the baby, I presume?"

"Yep. Just an hour ago. A boy," Harry reported, a grin on his face as he looked at her. "Sorry to startle you."

"What'd you name him, then?" Andromeda prompted.

"James," Harry replied quietly. "James Sirius Potter."

"I'm taking Teddy down to the hospital, all right?" Harry said after a moment of solemn silence. "Ginny wants him to be the first to see James."

"All right, go ahead," Andromeda replied, stifling a yawn.

"Do you want me to bring him back afterwards?"

"No, that's all right. I'll come down to Cheswick in a week or so to visit," Andromeda said, lying back down.

* * *

Teddy was still out cold when Harry crept into his bedroom. "Hey, Teddy," Harry whispered, tousling his hair. "Teddy, get up."

"'Snot even light out, Harry..." Teddy moaned, curling into a tighter ball under his blankets.

"What, you don't want to come see your baby brother now?" Harry teased, crouching down next to the bed. "He wants to see you, you know."

"So I got a baby brother, then?" Teddy yawned, opening his eyes a crack. "How'd he get out?"

"With much difficulty," Harry laughed. "C'mon, up you get. You can nap on the way."

* * *

"Ginny, he's quite little, isn't he?" Teddy said as he climbed up onto the bed to join her. "Are you sure you're holding him right? You might break him. James isn't as big as Louis."

Ginny laughed, letting Teddy climb into her lap. "Careful, Teddy," she warned as she gently deposited James into his waiting arms, making sure he was holding him correctly before she released the baby, kissing Teddy's cheek lightly.

"I'm going to go check with George across the hall," Harry said with a slight laugh, giving each of them a kiss before he left. "We swore not to say anything to the other until both were born."

"Don't be long," Ginny said, returning her attention to the two boys when Teddy let escape a tremendous yawn. "You tired, Teddy?"

"Harry woke me up," Teddy yawned, head beginning to drop and Ginny quickly took James out of his arms. "It wasn't even light out."

"All right, you go to sleep then, darling," Ginny said with a smile.

The door to the room opened again and Harry re-entered the room, closely followed by George with a small bundle cradled carefully in his arms.

"Hi, George!" Ginny greeted happily. "So?"

George grinned at her. "A boy. You?"

"A boy," Ginny replied.

* * *

"You stay away from him!" Teddy growled warningly at Victoire, ferociously guarding the sleeping baby beside him. "He's mine. You have your own brother."

"He's _my_ cousin too!" Victoire protested, trying to get past him.

"You'll break him," Teddy said, pushing her away. "You'll treat him too rough. You stay away from James."

* * *

Harry barely restrained the howls of laughter. "He's worse than Bill," he snickered, watching the interaction. "Wouldn't even let Andromeda near him last night."

"I think it's sort of sweet," Audrey said. "The way he guards him, it's so good big brother of him."

"Like a nesting mother," Charlie laughed. "I've seen dragons less territorial."

James woke up at that point in time, letting a shuddering little bleat of discontent. Immediately, Teddy had turned away from Victoire and was fussing over James. When comforting didn't seem to do the trick, he carefully, slowly pulled the carrier over to Harry and Ginny.

"Oh, what's the matter, baby?" Ginny cooed, lifting James out of the carrier.

"I think he needs to eat," Teddy said in a matter-of-fact way.

"Goodness, look at the time, we all need to eat!" Molly exclaimed, looking at the clock. "In the kitchen, then!"

* * *

Arthur stood up at the head of the table near the end of dinner, noise and chatter almost deafening. "Excuse me!" he called over the din. "Excuse me!"

"All of you, shush!" Molly said. "Talk, Arthur."

"To beginnings of new lives," Arthur began, holding up his glass of wine. "To life in all its ways, shapes and forms. To family, to friends, to love. May it always be so."

George leaned over to mutter to Harry, "To the third generation of Marauders. May Hogwarts survive another one." Harry nodded with a laugh, Ron snickering under his breath.

"To James Sirius Potter, and to Frederick Colin Weasley," Arthur finished grandly.

"To James and Fred," the adults echoed the toast.

"What about us?" Teddy and Victoire both chorused indignantly. The adults all burst into laughter, and between laughs, Arthur managed to add,

"And to Teddy and Victoire."

"And Nikki and Louis!" Victoire exclaimed.

"Why don't _we_ get our whole names in there?" Teddy asked.

* * *

"Harry, why were you and George and Ron laughing at dinner?" Teddy asked. "What did he say that was so funny?"

"George thinks that James and Fred are going to wreak havoc on Hogwarts," Harry said with a slight smile.

"Why?" Teddy asked. "What's the Marauders, I heard him say that?"

"The Marauders were a nickname, Teddy."

"For who?"

Harry sighed. Was six too young to get into this topic?

"Harry, answer me!" Teddy exclaimed.

Finally, Harry sighed and stood up. "Come with me a second, Teddy. I'll do better than tell you. I'll show you."

* * *

"Harry, what's all this?" Teddy asked curiously as the two went climbing up into the attic. "I've never been up here." He paused before he opened a trunk. "Can I touch this stuff?" he asked uneasily.

"Oh, yeah, go ahead," Harry said, looking for something inside a trunk. Teddy pushed open the lid of the trunk to reveal pell-mell mess.

"What are you looking for, Harry?" Teddy asked. "Maybe I can help you find it."

"I know I put it in this trunk here, I put it right next to the one with all my old stuff..." Harry was muttering, just as Teddy let out a delighted shout.

"Look, Harry, look!" And from the trunk, he pulled out a faded black cloak, with slight tears in it, a ragged hem and and an old badge attached to the chest, its brilliant sheen reduced to dullness with age. "An _Auror's_ cloak, is it yours? It's sort of _old_ to be yours, isn't it?" He threw the cloak around his shoulders and pulled the hood over his head, whirling around to show Harry. "Look, I'm an Auror just like you, Harry!"

Harry turned around and smiled slightly. "Ah, so you've found your mum's trunk."

Teddy paused, the cloak wrapping itself around his legs. "This is my mum's?"

"Yeah, that's Tonks' cloak. See the badge?" He pulled off the badge carefully and showed Teddy the back, as Teddy dropped down into his lap, the cloak still wrapped possessively around himself.

_Auror N.L. Tonks_

_Certified June 22, 1994_

"I like it better than yours," Teddy finally said, burying his face deep into the folds of the old cloak. "It's warmer."

"Warmer? How can it be warmer?" Harry asked indignantly. "It's made out of the same stuff!"

"I don't know," Teddy said serenely, settling back against Harry. "But it is." Yawning, he snuggled down into the cloak and his eyes fluttered shut.

* * *

"What's – is he sleeping in a cloak?" Ginny asked incredulously, checking in on Teddy as they were heading to bed.

"Yeah, he won't part with it," Harry said quietly, rubbing James' back soothingly. "Found it upstairs in the attic."

"Is that Tonks' Auror's cloak?" she asked with a frown, noticing the badge half-hidden behind the sleeping boy. Harry nodded. "How'd he get that?"

"He was asking over and over again about the Marauders, so I was going to show him some of the old pictures, and he spotted the cloak in that trunk full of Tonks' stuff. Promptly forgot all about the Marauders. Apparently this cloak is warmer than mine," he added wryly.

"Warmer? How can it be warmer?" Ginny asked.

"That's what I asked, and he just said, 'I don't know, it just is.'"

* * *

Teddy listened to Harry and Ginny talking outside in the hallway, breathing in deep the smell of the musty old cloak.

They didn't understand how magic worked, he thought. They didn't understand that magic came from your hands, not your wand. And sometimes his magic just happened and he didn't know why. Like when he touched his parents' plaques at last year's Remembrance Day ceremony, and he saw them again, and it made it seem as though maybe they were still alive, just on a long trip. And when he wrapped the cloak around himself... then he could feel his mother's arms wrapped around him, just as real as Harry's.

Sometimes he thought that hand-magic must be a kids' thing, because none of the grown-ups he knew could do it. Harry sometimes tried to figure out what was going on, when Teddy would use his hand-magic, but it never worked for him.

Yawning, Teddy settled down, pulled the cloak's edges in tighter and fell asleep.


	8. The End Drawing Nearer and Nearer

**Chapter 7: The End Drawing Nearer And Nearer**

_January 19, 2006:_

"Hey, Teddy, you coming?" Harry asked genially, appearing at Andromeda's back door with 22-month-old Jay on one hip. "Ginny's waiting for us at St. Mungo's."

"Finish your milk, Teddy dear, and then go on," Andromeda said affectionately.

"Harry, so do I have another brother or a sister now?" 7-year-old Teddy asked, quickly downing the last of his milk and jumping to his feet.

Harry laughed. "Another brother, Teddy. Come on, let's go." As Teddy hugged and kissed his grandmother goodbye, she cast a dark glance at Harry. He returned it with a warning glance of 'Not now.'

* * *

"Boys..." Harry could hear Ginny groaning in affection as he opened the door, letting Teddy dash in ahead of him and depositing Jay on the bed next to Ginny. "Brothers weren't enough, I have to have _boys_?"

"What's wrong with boys?" Teddy asked, climbing up onto the chair next to the bed.

"Nothing, Teddy darling, you just make a lot of mischief," Ginny laughed, letting Jay crawl into her lap. "Good morning, Jamie-baby," she greeted, kissing the top of his head as Harry carefully took Al from her. "Did you miss Mummy, sleeping at Nan's all night?" she asked, nuzzling his nose. "Teddy, darling, did you have a good time at Grandmum's?"

"Yeah, it was all right," Teddy replied, carefully accepting the baby when Harry put him into his arms. He watched the bright green eyes momentarily, then said definitively, "Victoire's not allowed near him either."

Harry and Ginny both laughed, Harry tousling Teddy's hair affectionately. "You're such a bulldog of a brother, Teddy."

* * *

"Andromeda, would you keep your voice down?" Harry said angrily. "Everybody else is sleeping!"

"Harry, he is _not_ your son!" Andromeda spat viciously. "You have no right – "

"I'm his guardian, Andromeda!" Harry hissed back. "I'll decide what he can and can't call my children!"

"They have no blood relation!" Andromeda snapped. "He can't call them brothers, it's not right!"

"Teddy is just as much my son as Jay and Al!"

"You're _temporary_, Harry, you know that!"

"I – "

"Both of you, stop it!" Ginny exclaimed, coming into the sitting room. "Just stop it before you wake him up! Do you _want_ Teddy to hear you fighting like this? You're supposed to be on the same side!"

"Stay out of this, Ginny, this is between Andromeda and I," Harry said tersely.

"I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that," Ginny said angrily, then stalked out to tend to a crying Al.

"You can't skirt the topic forever, Harry," Andromeda continued. "I've told you for two years that it was time for him to go home, and – "

"_This_ is his home, Andromeda," Harry snapped. "I was entrusted with his safety, and until I feel that he's safe in your custody – "

"What are you accusing me of?" Andromeda hissed.

"I am merely pointing out that of the last two years, Andromeda, you've spent 11 months of it in hospital, and of the remaining 13, seven months were spent bedridden! You can't properly – "

"Don't you tell me what I can and can't do, Harry Potter," Andromeda snarled. "I want him back in my custody."

"I won't do that now," Harry replied firmly. "I'm sorry, Andromeda, I won't. He's still too young."

"And when would he be old enough, when he's 17?" Andromeda asked coldly.

"At this rate, it may very well be," Harry answered. "Goodbye, Andromeda."

* * *

Ginny bit back the sob of frustration as she quietly opened the door to Teddy's room. Her little almost-8-year-old was thankfully fast asleep, still wrapped in Tonks' cloak, the multicoloured curls falling around his face.

For two years, for two long, arduous years this fight had been going on. It had started not long after Jay had been born, when Andromeda had begun dropping hints about having Teddy stay with her, so as to 'let them bond' with the new baby at home, 'without distraction'. When Harry had pointed out the illogic of her 'thoughtfulness', she had turned to other excuses: Teddy needed uninterrupted sleep. It would be easier on them to concentrate on Jay without worrying about a second child in the house. A little boy as active as Teddy posed a lot of danger to a newborn – he might knock the baby out of his bassinet by accident, or grab him too hard and shake him, or push him over... Harry had thus far thwarted her at every turn, but the end seemed inevitable.

And the end seemed to be drawing nearer and nearer every time Ginny looked at him.

Sighing, Ginny sat down on the edge of Teddy's bed, lightly brushing his hair out of his face and rearranging his cloak. "Oh, Teddy, darling..." she whispered.

Teddy's eyes fluttered open. "They're fighting again, aren't they?" he asked softly, blue eyes watching her from the shadows of the cloak. "Harry and Grandmum? They're fighting about me again."

Ginny nodded slightly, brushing her hand against his cheek. Some days he was just too bright for his own good. "Teddy darling, come here a moment." She wrapped a gentle arm around his shoulders. "You know that these arguments don't mean either Grandmum or Harry don't love you just as much as they always have. You mean the world to them both."

"But I don't mean more than you and Jay and Al, right?" Teddy asked, his head resting against her shoulder. "I mean, you're his real – "

"Don't start thinking like that, Teddy," Ginny said sharply. "You do not mean anything less than Jay and Al to either Harry or I. In fact," she said, softening when she saw the startled look in his eyes, "There are days that I think you mean much, much more to Harry than any of the rest of us can ever imagine."

"How's that?" Teddy asked.

Ginny sighed. "Because you were the first family that Harry had had in a very long time. Harry didn't get to have somebody who loved him that like for very long at all. His aunt and uncle, the ones who raised – and I use the word loosely – him, they didn't care for him at all, they almost hated him. He only had Sirius for a few years, and even then, Harry had only seen him a handful of times."

"But didn't you come first?"

"Oh, you came long before me, sweet," Ginny laughed. "You had him all to yourself for almost a year and a half before Harry and I married." She kissed his forehead tenderly. "I swear Harry thinks you are the greatest thing to have happened to this world since Quidditch. Spoiled you senseless, he did, even when we still hadn't money in the world. He catered to your every passing whim and I think you spent more time in Harry's arms than you did anywhere else until you were too big to carry any more." She sighed again, ruffling Teddy's hair. "You were always more important to Harry than anything else in this life. He wouldn't go back to Hogwarts after the war was done, because that meant he would be leaving you. Kingsley wanted him to be an Auror full-time, straightaway, but Harry didn't want to do that because it meant he would see less of you. Harry hates leaving you with anybody else."

* * *

"He heard you two arguing last night," Ginny said quietly to Harry as they watched Teddy and Jay playing on the ground with Teddy's Quaffle.

Harry was still darkly silent, Al held against his chest protectively.

"Harry, what happened?" Ginny groaned.

Harry sighed, eyes following Teddy as his eldest dashed into the kitchen to retrieve the ball, being pursued by Jay. Shrieks and laughs escaped from the kitchen as they evidently collided. "I had to give in. She wasn't leaving it alone, and I'm tired of fighting with her."

"Oh, Harry..." Ginny breathed in dismay.

"Told her the end of summer after he turns ten. No sooner, no later. September 2008." Harry's voice was monotone, detached.

* * *

"Teddy, sweet, can you make your hair a normal colour for today?" Ginny asked gently, tucking Al's blankets around him securely in his pram. "We're going about Muggle London, and 8-year-olds with purple hair are just as unusual but not at all explainable."

Sighing with disappointment, Teddy asked, "But can I make it long, then?"

"Whatever you want, dearest," Ginny replied, tickling her baby under the chin affectionately. "Harry, are you and Jay almost ready?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're coming!" Harry called back.

* * *

"Teddy, come back here!" Harry yelled as Teddy ran off ahead, stopping in front of the window of a sweets shop.

"Oh, look, Harry, there's Susan Bones!" Ginny exclaimed. "Goodness, does she have a baby as well? When did she... Susan!"

The red-haired young woman turned around, startled, it seemed. Her eyes widened and she actually looked frightened to see them approaching. "Oh, h-h-hi, Ginny. Harry."

"Haven't seen you around Diagon Alley for a while, Susan, where have you been?" Ginny asked with a smile, reaching a hand into the pram for Al to grab.

"I've been rebuilding my life," Susan said wryly. "After all this junk in our world... I'm not so sure I want in it anymore. My husband's a Muggle, got no idea I'm a witch... don't know what I'm going to tell him when Ben turns 11... Half-hoping he's a Squib..."

"Did you hear about Hannah?" Harry asked, resettling Jay on the other hip.

"Yeah, she told me she's taken over the Leaky Cauldron. I told her I thought it was wonderful. I don't hear from many others besides Hannah."

"Susan, who's this?" came a familiar voice as a robust young blonde man appeared at her side. "What the – "

Harry stared at his cousin in stupefaction. "_Dudley_?" he managed to say.

"Long time no see, Po– Harry," Dudley said, dumbfounded. "How do you know my wife?"

"You... know each other?" Susan asked uneasily, looking from Harry to Dudley and back again. Her eyes pleaded with Harry not to divulge the truth.

"Know each other?" Dudley said in disbelief. "_Know _each other, we – "

"They share a common set of grandparents," Ginny laughed, clearly biting back the urge to howl in hysterics. "They're cousins, Susan."

"C-c-cousins?" Susan stammered.

"Grudgingly, reluctantly, but yeah, we're cousins," Harry said, eyes still constantly flicking back to Teddy, who was watching from a slight distance. "So, moved out of Mummy and Daddy's place, did you?"

"Yeah, about two, three years ago," Dudley said uneasily, still frowning. "Married just last year, Susan and I. What happened to you? Last I saw, you were looking rather beat up and ragged and homeless. Must've been desperate, to come back to Privet Drive. You seem to have added to your number of dependents since," he added bluntly. "Not the smartest idea, I'll bet, but you went and got a girl knocked up once, I suppose you didn't learn your lesson. What happened to the other one, it's got to be older than that one?" he asked, gesturing to Jay.

"He's ogling the sweets at the shop across the way," Harry said dryly. "Oi! Teddy! Come back here! For your information, Dudley, that's my godson. I had just got custody of him a fortnight before I came 'round Privet Drive. His parents were killed in the final battle. Ted Remus Lupin, you get yourself back over here or I'm not getting you _anything _today!"

"All right, all right, all right," Teddy said grudgingly, dashing back across the lane. "I still think Honeydukes looks better than that old Muggle sweet shop any way. Can I have some Ice Mice when we go to Diagon Alley? Who're you?" he asked Dudley.

"Teddy!" Ginny reprimanded. "That wasn't polite."

"Lupin?" Susan asked. "Not – "

"Yeah, my dad was Professor Remus Lupin," Teddy spoke up without hesitation. "That's the first thing people ask when they hear my surname. He was one of the best professors Hogwarts ever had, everybody says so. Well, except some of the Slytherins, but what do you expect from them? And my mum was an – "

"All right, Teddy, they don't need to hear your whole chronology," Harry laughed, just as Susan was frowning at him, mouthing 'Is he a...' and she made a slight clawing motion.

"They always do _that_, too," Teddy continued cheerfully, indicating Susan's gesture and mouthed words. "Some of them aren't subtle at all about it. I've had some come right out and ask out loud, too. I don't know why it would matter in any case, because everybody says that my parents were heroes, even if my dad _was _a – "

"Teddy, enough, we're in a shopping centre full of Muggles," Harry muttered under his breath, putting a light hand over his godson's mouth.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"Well, it's been pleasant seeing you again, Susan, but we've got places to go, things to buy..." Ginny said, sensing Susan's deep desire to get out of there. "Harry, why don't you let Jay down and he can walk for a bit?"

"Yeah, all right," Harry relented, setting Jay down on his feet and seizing the toddler's hand. "Come on, Teddy."

"You never answered my question, Harry," Teddy said as they departed again, the sounds of Dudley and Susan engaged in a fierce whispered conversation carrying over the wind. "Can I have a packet of Ice Mice when we get to Diagon Alley?"

* * *

"Waitwaitwait," George said in disbelief as Harry and Ginny were recounting the story to him, Katie, Ron and Hermione that afternoon at the joke shop, Teddy and Jay both happily tearing into a couple of Chocolate Frogs apiece. "Harry's cousin the wizard-hater married a witch?"

"Well, Susan didn't tell him she was a witch," Ginny said. "Though I expect he knows now, how else would she know us?"

"That's hilarious!" Ron roared with laughter. "Now _that's _a conversation I'd pay Galleons to hear!"

"Not that the Galleons would get you much, seeing as they don't exist any more," Harry laughed. "Jay, don't touch," he added warningly to his son, who was reaching for one of the demonstration objects with great interest. Jay, his mouth full of chocolate, ignored him and climbed up on a nearby stepstool, accidentally knocking over the box full of Jumping Jacks ('Try to catch them before the ball lands!') when he reached in to grab a handful. The jacks all began to jump a few inches in the air, bouncing crazily around the area, making the children in the store laugh with delight and start trying to catch them.

"Ah! They're escaping!" Teddy laughed, chasing after a particularly fast little red one. Jay had a little more trouble managing to snatch one. Fred quickly joined in, catching jack after jack – almost though he'd done it before.

"Yeah, Fred's a good little jacks player, aren't you, sweetheart?" Katie cooed to her son, letting him dump his collection into her hands. "All because Daddy's been testing out the new toys on you..."

"Just for this chaos," Ginny laughed as she watched her boys running around happily, "I'm eating Jay's last Chocolate Frog."

"Oi, maybe I wanted it," Harry said indignantly.

"Fine. I'll have the top half, you can have the bottom half."

"I want the top half, the bottom half kicks all the way down..."

In the middle of this goodnatured debate, Teddy had seized the unguarded treat and unwrapped it, eating it quickly and pulling out the card.

"So, who've you got, Teddy?" Hermione asked with a laugh as Ginny and Harry both made parental sounds of outrage.

Teddy looked at it. "I've got Ronald Weasley," he announced.

"Very _not_ funny, Teddy, my dearest ambition was to end up on a Chocolate Frog card," Ron said darkly. "What is it, Merlin again?"

"No, really, it's Ronald Weasley," Teddy insisted, putting the card down on the counter.

Sure enough, Ron's freckled face was grinning and waving from the card.

"Merlin!" Ron yelped, snatching up the card. "I'm sorry, Teddy, you're not getting this back, I'm framing this!" He grinned and almost started hopping up and down excitedly. "I'm on a Chocolate Frog card! Look, Hermione, look!"

Hermione chuckled and shook her head, her stomach still swollen with their unborn child. "Oh, Ron..." she sighed.

"Hey, Harry, don't we have to go to Ollivander's still?" Teddy asked suddenly, snatching up the last jack wiggling around feebly, as though growing tired of this game.

"Yeah, that's right, we do, I need him to cement my wand's grip a bit, it's come loose," Harry agreed.

"But we were just starting in on such a good conversation," Ginny complained along with Katie and Hermione.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll take the boys and go to Ollivander, and you can stay here and gab to your heart's content. Jay, come on. Give Uncle George back his jacks. Teddy, you too."

* * *

Pushing open the door to Ollivander's, Harry was surprised not to hear the as-of-late normal sounds of Ollivander muttering to himself and rattling about in his shop, 'putting everything to rights'. The shop was deathly silent.

"Ollivander?" he called, leaving Al's pram alongside another, far more elaborate and fancy than the Potters'. Lifting Al up into his arms, he gestured for Teddy and Jay to follow.

The reason for the silence soon became evident. Ollivander was standing quietly, warily off to the side as Draco Malfoy's wife was testing out wands with Malfoy standing not far off, his own new baby in his arms.

Harry sent a nod of recognition and reassurance to Ollivander, who looked visibly relieved to see him, and a curt nod of acknowledgment to Malfoy.

"Potter," Malfoy greeted shortly.

"Malfoy."

They left their conversation at that, as Asteria seemed to find the wand she was looking for, passed the box to Ollivander wordlessly and reclaimed her infant from her husband. They paid without further words and left, Harry and Malfoy both casting glares at each other as the distance expanded.

"Boys, you do not touch anything in here, are we clear on this?" Harry warned quietly. Teddy nodded, grabbing Jay's hand to indicate his godbrother's agreement to the terms.

"What can I do for you today, Mr Potter?" Ollivander asked, his voice still shaky. "It surely can't be time for young Master Lupin to purchase his first wand?"

Harry smiled at him, switching Al to one arm so that he could pull out his wand from its holster, wincing when the grip slid dangerously. "No, not for a few years yet. I need you to re-cement my wand grip," he said. "I think it's showing its age."

"Age, no," Ollivander said, taking the wand reverently from Harry. "Holly wands are strong. They can last for a hundred years, those ones. When one is using their wand in such high-power situations such as yourself, Mr Potter, regardless of wood type, the grips often come loose and need to be re-cemented every few years. I find most of my Auror clientele tend to be in here once a year, just to make sure that their wand is in perfect working order. I'll give it a good look-over, shall I, while you're here?"

"That'd be great, Ollivander, thanks," Harry said gratefully.

"May I watch, Mr Ollivander, sir?" Teddy asked politely.

"Certainly, Master Lupin, but it is dull work, I warn you."

"Oh, no, I don't think it'll be dull at all," Teddy said brightly. "I like wands."

* * *

Harry listened to Teddy pepper Ollivander with innocent, curious questions while the old man went about his task, shaking his head in affection. Eight years old and he was asking about things like wood strength and core value... the boy was going to wind up a wandmaker if he wasn't careful.

"Da, go now?" Jay asked plaintively, climbing up onto the chair beside Harry.

"Not quite, Jay. Just a little longer," Harry replied, just as Ollivander and Teddy emerged from the back room, Teddy flushed with excitement and positively in raptures over getting to watch Ollivander work. Dashing back to Harry, he handed him the repaired wand. "Thank you, Ollivander," he said, pulling out his wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

"Oh, nothing at all for today, Mr Potter, it was my pleasure. You rescued me from the clutches of the Dark Lord and your godson was an excellent assistant."

"Oh. Are you sure?" Harry said. "Because I can – "

"Consider it a token of my gratitude, Mr Potter," Ollivander said with a slight smile.

"Well, thank you." Harry tucked the wand away safely again and corralled his boys. "All right, Teddy, Jay, let's go. Time to go home."


	9. A Final, Ugly Argument

**A/N:** Yeah, I know this is more Harry/Teddy centric than it is about the Weasleys, but that'll change soon enough...

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 8: A Final, Ugly Argument**

_May 2, 2008:_

"Teddy, get up, it's Hogwarts today!" 4-year-old Jay exclaimed, dashing into Teddy's bedroom early that morning and jumping up onto his bed. "Teddy, wake _up_!"

"I'm getting up, I'm getting up," 10-year-old Teddy grumbled, though he curled up tighter underneath his cloak and shoved his pillow over his head.

"No, you're _not_!" Jay protested, tugging at Teddy's pillow. "Teddy!"

"Teh'ee!" 2-year-old Al shrieked, joining his brother up on the bed. "Teh'ee _up_!"

"Go _away_!" Teddy complained. "Ginny!"

Jay and Al's laughs suddenly stopped, and it had nothing to do with their mother.

"What's going on in here?" Ginny asked, a little crossly. "Teddy, sweet, get up now, we have to leave for Hogwarts soon. What in Merlin's name..." She gasped slightly as she saw the smoking edges of what used to be the bottom six inches of the back of Tonks' cloak. "Oh, dear..."

"Mummy, acc'dent," Al whimpered fearfully, reaching for her.

"What?" Teddy asked, not having noticed the accidental magic. Sitting up, his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open when he saw the great gaping hole in the fabric.

"Teh'ee, acc'dent," Al repeated, tears in his eyes.

"He must've lost control of his magic, Teddy, you've done the same thing," Ginny said quietly, gently tugging the cloak away from the shocked young boy.

"He _burnt_ it!" Teddy exploded angrily.

* * *

"Wow, what drama did _I _miss this morning?" Harry said in astonishment as he joined his family at the service, giving all three boys a quick kiss and then kissing Ginny with a light hand on her stomach. Teddy was unhappily slouched in his chair, ignoring his brothers; James was sitting stock still in his own chair, casting unhappy glances at his mother; Al was trying to cuddle desperately as deep into Ginny's arms as he could manage, his frightened eyes flicking back and forth between Teddy and Ginny.

"You may want to go talk to Teddy," Ginny murmured softly to him, "after the ceremony's done. Al had a little bit of uncontrolled magic today and burnt the bottom six inches of Tonks' cloak. I've put it aside, I'll try to mend it for him a little later. Did you catch him?"

"Dolohov is safely holed up in Azkaban, awaiting the Kiss," Harry nodded, casting a worried glance down the row to the silent, sullen young boy. "Oi, Teddy," he whispered, tossing one of his gloves at him lightly. Irritably, Teddy chucked the glove back, glaring at Harry through teary eyes.

"What?"

"C'mere, let's go for a walk," Harry said.

Teddy frowned suspiciously at him. "Before the ceremony's even ended?" he asked uneasily.

"C'mon," Harry repeated. Reluctantly, Teddy slid out of his chair and followed his godfather away from the rows of students and adults. "Tell me what happened this morning."

"Ginny told you," Teddy muttered, dragging his feet.

"I want to hear it from you," Harry replied. "What happened?"

"Al burnt Mum's cloak," Teddy mumbled. "There's a huge hole in it now."

"Do you think Al meant to burn it?" Harry asked carefully, watching his eldest's face struggle between anger and grief and shame.

"Well, no, he's just a little boy..." Teddy paused, evidently waiting for Harry's reprimand. When it didn't come, he continued defensively, "But that's _my_ mum's cloak! I don't want it wrecked!"

Harry sighed. Wrapping a gentle arm around Teddy's shoulders, he pulled his godson into a light hug. "I know you don't. That's something that a lot of children will never fully understand, Teddy. Something I hope Jay and Al never have to learn. They don't know what it's like to only have a few things left of your family. They don't understand. And I know that you like keeping the cloak nearby, but things like that are bound to happen when you leave it lying around. That's why I left it all up in the attic. There's not a chance that the little guys can get in there and wreck anything."

Teddy nodded silently, settling his head against Harry's side. "Can it be fixed?" he asked softly. "Mum's cloak?"

"Ginny said she'll try to mend it later, when the boys are out of the way," Harry reassured him. "Besides, that cloak belonged to one of the least-coordinated people I have ever met in my many, many years." A slight grin cracked his face. "I'm sure it's been mended from worse than that."

_

* * *

_

May 17, 2008:

"Oh, Teddy, please don't do that, it's very unsettling," Ginny said, watching her stepson carefully work at repairing one of Jay's toys, his magic under sufficient control to meld together the tiny little pieces.

"But he's fixing it, Mummy!" Jay protested, lying on his stomach with his eyes glued to Teddy's hands.

"Teh'ee fix good," Al informed his mother, climbing over Teddy's back to watch from over his shoulder.

"There you are," Teddy announced triumphantly, handing Jay back his toy. "Don't break it again."

Ginny smiled and shook her head, standing up with more than a little difficulty. "All right, boys. Time for bed. Go get your pajamas on."

"But Daddy's not home yet!" Jay complained.

"Daddy's out chasing Death-Eaters, darling, I don't know what time he'll be back," Ginny said, ushering Jay upstairs. "Go change, please, Jay. Teddy, sweet, go on."

* * *

Ginny woke up very suddenly when a burst of pain went through her lower body. "Harry?" she whispered through gritted teeth, hoping that he had returned in the night without waking her. There was no answer, and the bedspace next to her was empty.

As another contraction hit, she bit back the cry of pain and managed to get herself up and dressed. Merlin, it _would _be tonight, it would be the night Harry was preoccupied with his vendetta to get Fenrir Greyback... not that she didn't want Greyback caught and preferably killed, but was she supposed to Floo her way to Andromeda's out in Willow Hollow with three sleepy boys in tow to drop off Teddy and then Floo to the Burrow with the other two and then Floo to St. Mungo's? Merlin, the baby'd probably be born by that time! This one was coming much faster than the other two had. She wasn't even sure she'd make it to the Burrow and then to London...

Merlin, this probably would count as breaking Andromeda's terms, but extenuating circumstances called for extreme actions.

Gritting her teeth, Ginny made her way to the kitchen, gripping tightly to the wall and conjured her Patronus. "Go to the Burrow. Tell Mum and Dad that the baby's coming, and to come now and watch the boys."

"Ginny?" came Teddy's wary voice from the doorway as Ginny lowered herself to a chair carefully. "Ginny, are you all right?"

"Teddy, dear, go back to bed," she said shakily, as the fireplace glowed bright green suddenly and her parents both burst out within seconds. "Sorry to wake you guys..."

"Come on, sweetheart, we'll head for London. Dad will stay here with the boys," Molly said soothingly.

"Granddad, she's all right, right?" Teddy asked anxiously as Molly and Ginny disappeared into the flames again.

"Come on, old chap, back to bed," Arthur said evasively. "Just having a baby."

"But I'm supposed to go to Grandmum's, then..." Teddy said slowly. "That's what Grandmum said to Harry. She said to send me to Willow Hollow..."

"I think Andromeda will forgive us in this particular situation, Teddy. Head back to bed, please."

* * *

"But Mummy," Jay said two days later, as he climbed up onto a chair to get a better look at the baby, "why isn't Daddy home now?"

"Because he hasn't caught the Death-Eaters yet, Jay, that's why," Teddy replied in a matter-of-fact tone, leaning forward on his elbows to contemplate the newest creature to hit the Potter household: a _girl_. "Don't be silly, Harry doesn't come home until they're in Azkaban."

Ginny finished changing the baby just as the front door opened and Andromeda's voice called, "Harry? Ginny? You home?"

"In the kitchen, Grandmum!" Teddy called. "Hey, Lily, don't _cry_..." he said soothingly, reaching out to lightly hold her tight little fist. "It's only Grandmum."

Andromeda appeared in the doorway just then. "Teddy, darling, come give me a hug and kiss," she chided gently. Teddy came and indulged her, then said excitedly,

"Come look, Grandmum, we have a girl!" A slight flicker of suspicion crossed Andromeda's face, but she quickly put it aside and came into the kitchen. "Her name is Lily, Grandmum. Lily Nymphadora."

Andromeda's face registered shock for a moment before it recomposed itself. "So," she managed to say in a would-be civil tone. "When did you have her?"

"Two days ago," Ginny replied quietly.

"And Harry didn't bring Teddy to me because – "

"Because Harry's been chasing Greyback for three days. I didn't have time to bring him, Andromeda." Ginny lifted Lily into her arms. "Boys, why don't you go play outside for a while, let Andromeda and I talk?" she said softly. They all nodded and ran out the door, Teddy looking back worriedly.

"He's ten years old," Andromeda said in a low voice. "Surely he could've gone by himself?"

"Not at 2 AM, I wasn't going to risk it," Ginny replied. "Listen, Andromeda, about this ridiculous custody arrangement..."

"I was under the impression that any arrangement was made between Harry and I," Andromeda murmured. "We are, after all, Teddy's guardians."

"Oh, don't pull that card," Ginny snapped, "you know perfectly well that I have just as much say as Harry. I really think you're going about this all the wrong way."

"How so?"

"Andromeda, what good is it going to do him to move? He starts Hogwarts in a year."

"Well, that's not my doing, is it? I asked for him back four years ago."

Ginny sighed. "Andromeda, why? Why is it so important that he lives in _your _house? Do you just feel threatened because he's not considered separate from the rest of the children?"

Andromeda gave her a look that had clearly been refined over generations of Black women. "Until you've lost a child, Ginny, don't talk to me about feeling threatened," she said icily. "If you're not going to cooperate, I can have Magical Law Enforcement come..."

* * *

"But Harry said not until September!" Teddy protested, giving Ginny a wide-eyed, pleading look. "You and Harry _said_ not until September, I wasn't going!"

Ginny took a deep breath. "Teddy, sweetheart," she murmured, "just go with your grandmother for right now. I promise, Harry will try to sort this out when he gets home. It's a little complicated, darling. Hopefully, we'll have you home in a few days at most, all right? But you behave for your grandmother until then."

Teddy watched her for a while, then nodded silently.

"That's my boy," Ginny said with a smile. "Come here." She reached out and hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek. "I love you, sweetheart."

_

* * *

_

Two days later:

The house was quiet when Harry arrived home, and his heart started pounding. It was nighttime, certainly, but Teddy and Ginny would still be awake – it wasn't that late, after all – and Teddy made more noise on his own than Jay and Al combined.

"Ginny?" he called out warily, opening the front door. "Ginny, you awake?"

"Over here, Harry," came Ginny's quiet voice from the sitting room. "How'd the chase go?"

"Got five of the werewolves from Greyback's gang. Think I might've mortally wounded Greyback. House seems pretty quiet, is anything wrong?" Harry asked, entering the sitting room. Seeing the baby lying in the basket next to Ginny, he said, "Oh, no, Ginny, I didn't miss it..."

"Yeah," Ginny said quietly, "And there's more. Sit down."

* * *

"Teddy, sweetheart, please don't sulk so," Andromeda pleaded gently, watching her grandson's unhappy face. His hair had reverted to the limp, mousy brown which had always told Andromeda when Nymphadora had been upset. And it _was_ a particularly depressing brown, not the fair, light brown of his father nor the natural tawny sheen of his mother.

"You broke your promise, you know," Teddy said sullenly, flipping another page in his book. "You said in September. It's May."

"Teddy, don't try to meddle in grown-up affairs, all right?" Andromeda said sternly. "Harry and I had an agreement – "

"That's not fair! Harry wasn't even _home_!"

"Ted!" she exclaimed sharply. "Keep a respectful tongue in that head of yours!"

"No! I want to go home!" His head snapped up as he heard Harry's distant voice shouting angrily, "_ANDROMEDA!_" The kitchen door burst open shortly thereafter and Harry stormed in.

"Harry!" Teddy exclaimed in delight, dashing for his godfather.

"Hey, you," Harry greeted with a laugh, ducking down to hug him tightly. "Tell you what, Teddy, why don't you go read your book upstairs and Grandmum and I are going to have a little chat down here?"

"And then we go home, right?" Teddy asked anxiously.

Harry paused only a split-second before he said, "Yeah, and then we go home." He kissed his godson's cheek lightly and then swatted him gently across the back of the head. "Go on, then." Once Teddy had vacated the kitchen, he turned back to Andromeda, anger crackling in his eyes. "That was low, Andromeda. Taking him when you knew I was gone for days, when you knew Ginny couldn't really fight back, when you knew she couldn't follow you... I've half a mind to cancel the whole arrangement."

"We had an agreement, Harry," Andromeda repeated. "Ginny didn't follow it."

"She was in bleeding labour, Andromeda!" Harry snapped. "I'm sorry if she thought of calling her own parents before you!" He took a deep breath to try and calm himself before this argument blew up and destroyed everything. "All right," he murmured. "Let's sit down and discuss this rationally."

"I've told you time and again, Harry, that I want to see him more."

"And when have I ever denied you that?" Harry burst out. "When have you ever needed to ask permission to come, when I have ever denied you access to him, when was the last time I said 'no' when you said you were taking him out for the day or for the weekend?" He took another breath, a little more shaky than the first, and continued, "And what do you do to repay me? You take advantage of my absence and you rip him away."

* * *

"Teddy!" Jay and Al both cried out gleefully, dashing at their brother as he came back inside the house with Harry behind him. "Teddy's back! Mummy!"

Ginny came out from the kitchen, carrying Lily, and smiled at the sight of her step-godson back where she wanted him. "Teddy, darling, come here," she said, and wrapped him into a tight hug as Harry took the baby from her. "Oh, it's good to have you home again, sweet."

* * *

"Harry, I thought verbal agreements were good enough for you," came Hermione's quiet voice from the sitting room that night.

"I've learnt my lesson about verbal agreements," Harry replied softly. "This one I wanted in writing. Would you just look it over and tell me if you find any loopholes?"

Teddy listened at the doorway, heart pounding. He didn't understand a lot of the words, but he thought he got the general idea.

He was staying here until he started school. Grandmum was still allowed to come when she wanted and take him when she wanted, as long as it wasn't any longer than a week and Harry and Ginny agreed to it. When he started school, he would split his holidays between Grandmum and here. Summers he would spend half at Grandmum's, half here. Easter and Christmas, he would switch every year: if he spend Christmas here, then he spent Easter at Grandmum's, and the next year he would spend Christmas at Grandmum's and Easter here.

It wasn't too bad, he supposed. Not as good as just staying here, but he supposed that you couldn't have everything you wanted.

Stifling a yawn, Teddy returned upstairs and crawled underneath his blankets and Mum's cloak to sleep.


	10. Rivalry Is In The Blood, Pt 1

**Chapter 9: Rivalry Is In the Blood, Part 1**

**(Or, Teddy Starts Hogwarts)**

_September 1, 2009:_

Rolling his eyes, 11-year-old Teddy allowed his step-godmother to give him sentimental, wishy-washy kisses and mindlessly agreed to the constant admonitions to 'be _good_!'.

"All right, all right, leave some face, please," Teddy finally said, ducking away from what must've been the hundredth kiss.

"Have a good term, Teddy," Harry said, giving him a quick hug.

"Aren't _you_ going to tell me to behave myself?" Teddy asked suspiciously, looking at Harry.

"Oh, hell no, I know better," Harry laughed, dodging Ginny's swipe at him easily. "Five minutes, you'd best get on the train."

"Can't I go with Teddy? I'm a big boy!" Jay whined, tugging at his mother's jeans.

"You can go with Teddy in another five years," Ginny replied with a smile, ruffling his messy black hair and waving back at Teddy as he climbed onto the train.

"God, it only seems like yesterday..." Harry muttered, resettling Lily on one hip. "He's not seriously 11?" he asked Ginny hopefully. "He's still only a baby, right?"

Ginny laughed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Harry, he _is_ eleven. It _has_ been that long."

"It's not fair..." Harry muttered again as the train began to pull out. "I feel old."

* * *

"Hey, do you mind if we sit in here?" came the query of a boy about Teddy's age, with tangled brown hair and a spot of dirt smudged across his cheek. His family clearly hadn't fully regained its financial footing, since his clothes were obviously second-hand and in desperate need of some mending. The second one didn't seem much better off: straw-coloured hair limp against his head and in serious need of a trim, his clothes mended but still worn.

"Yeah, sure, go ahead," Teddy replied, gesturing at the empty bench across from him. "I'm Teddy. Teddy Lupin," he added.

"Marcus Dylan, pleased to meet you," the first boy said, "and this is Jesse Korbin, he's my neighbour. So are you Mug – wait, you said _Lupin_?"

"Yeah," Teddy said uneasily, waiting for the inevitable...

"Obviously you're not Muggleborn, then," Marcus finished instead. "Lupin's a wizarding name. You related to the Lupins at the Battle of Hogwarts?"

"Yeah, I'm their son," Teddy said, a slight smile on his face.

"Gosh, you must know Harry Potter, then, he fought there too – "

Teddy rolled his eyes. Finally, somebody who didn't know his relation to Harry Potter. Clearly either Muggleborn or Muggle-raised. "He's my godfather. I live with him, most of the time, any way. So where do you come from?"

"Well, we live in Cheswick. I think Cheswick's exclusively Muggle, but my grandparents say that they reckon there might be some wizarding families in the area..."

"Well, I know there's at least one," Teddy offered, "seeing as we live in Cheswick. Well, not really _in_ Cheswick, we're about ten miles out from the town..."

"Oh, is it your family that lives in the house down Old Miller's Lane?" Jesse asked curiously.

"I guess, I don't actually know what the road's called," Teddy shrugged. "We just call it the Potter-Lupin house when we need to get to it by Floo."

"Floo?" Jesse and Marcus asked. "What's Floo?"

"Floo?" Teddy asked with a frown. "You don't know what Floo is? How do you know all this stuff about wizarding names and battles and stuff and you don't know what Floo is?"

"Well, my grandparents are Muggles," Marcus said. "My parents were both Muggleborns, but they died when I was four. My grandparents still kept some magic stuff around... one of them was a bunch of Daily Prophets from that first week after the final battle. I saw the Lupin in there, so I figured it must've been a wizard. Hey, Grandpa told me about one way my parents used to get around was in the fireplace. Is that Floo?"

"In the _fireplace_?" Jesse asked incredulously. "You're fibbing! People don't travel through _fireplaces_!"

"Sure we do," Teddy replied. "It's not particularly fun, I actually prefer flying places, but it's a hell of a lot quicker."

"Are you actually allowed to talk like that at your house?" Marcus asked warily. "I'd have gotten my mouth washed out with soap if I'd said stuff like that."

"I think Ginny's given up," Teddy said with a laugh. "I picked it up from Harry, he's an Auror and he's got the mouth to go with it. I don't dare talk like that around Grandmum."

"An Auror?" Jesse questioned. "What's an Auror?"

"Well, basically, he chases Dark wizards. Most of them are Death-Eaters, from the war, you see. He's quite good at it, he's only had one escape and he's reasonably certain that one was mortally wounded. He's actually head of the Aurors Office at the Ministry now, Kingsley promoted him two years ago after Robards retired..."

"So sort of a cop?" Marcus said.

"A cop? Harry don't cop out of anything!"

"Well, no, cop as in police," Jesse said.

"No, he's not really Magical Law Enforcement. They don't deal with petty things like magic in front of Muggles and misuse of magic at the Aurors' Office. The Aurors' Office used to be part of it, but when Kingsley overhauled the Ministry, he separated them. They deal more with the serious stuff like Death-Eaters and hate crimes."

"What's this Ministry you're talking about?" Jesse asked.

"Well, the Ministry for Magic, of course. You don't think our world operates without a government, do you?"

Their conversation was interrupted by the door sliding open and a couple of dark-haired boys starting to come in.

"Oh, no, can't go in here, Colm," one boy said haughtily, casting a glance around the compartment. "See the sort of filth in here? Mudbloods and half-breed's mutant whelps..." He smirked tauntingly at Teddy, who had gotten to his feet and drawn his wand. "What? Surprised that I know? I thought all our world knew that your father was filth and your mother a mutant and a disgrace..."

"My parents were heroes," Teddy said in a low, trembling voice. "I suggest you leave of your own accord before I make you leave."

"What are you going to do, savage me?" the boy replied. That seemed to be the final straw for Teddy.

* * *

"Stop it!" came a professor's howl as they elbowed their way through the students gathered in the corridor and hanging out of compartments to watch the fight. "Stop it, the both of you!"

Two rough hands yanked the two duelists apart, still straining to get back at it.

"You, go back to your compartment," the professor snapped at the dark-haired boy. "You, come with me. The rest of you get back in your compartments!"

* * *

They were halfway to the professors' compartment when Teddy realized which professor was dragging him.

"Neville, you didn't _hear_ what he'd said!" Teddy protested, struggling against Neville's firm hand. "Neville, he deserved it!"

"You, shush," Neville said, sitting him down on a seat. "You gave him what he wanted. He was trying to get a rise out of you, and it worked."

"What was I supposed to do?" Teddy asked furiously. "He called my father filth! And he called my mother a mutant and a disgrace!"

Neville sighed, rubbing his forehead. "He wasn't the first and he won't be the last, Teddy. You have to learn to stop listening to them. Anybody who actually knew your father wouldn't be saying that. And your mother married him, so she was a hell of a lot smarter and better than any of that lot give her credit for. It's centuries of prejudice and fear speaking there."

"Well, I won't stand for it!" Teddy said angrily. "And I'll hex his brains straight out of his head if he tries that again!"

Neville sighed again. "You truly are Harry's godson. You listen to me, all right? Be careful. You do too much of that defending, and he's going to tell his family, who are going to get Umbridge on you."

"Harry won't let Umbridge near me," Teddy said confidently. "He'd do his nut."

"And I have no doubt about that," Neville agreed, "but still the same, don't give them a reason to call you a danger. Go on back to your compartment, then. We should be at school in a bit."

* * *

"What was _that_ all about?" Marcus asked immediately, as Teddy slipped back inside.

Teddy sniffed. "Idiots."

"What was he _talking_ about?" Jesse asked.

"Let's just say my lineage is a little unusual," Teddy muttered. When Marcus and Jesse both opened their mouths to ask again, he said, "My father was a werewolf. My mother was a Metamorphmagus."

"Why's that bad?" Jesse asked timidly.

"Well, most of the older wizards and witches, and a lot of the old pureblood families, hate werewolves. A lot of the ones around Harry's age and younger are better about it. My father taught most of them at Hogwarts one year, and some of them fought in the war with him."

"So does that mean you're a werewolf, then?" Marcus asked, a slight strangled tone in his voice.

"No," Teddy replied, looking at him warily. "Never had a hair of a symptom since the day I was born. Why?"

"My parents and my baby sister were killed by werewolves," Marcus said softly.

Teddy frowned at him as he remembered one difficult day at the Potter-Lupin house.

_

* * *

_

"Harry, can't we play outside for a while?" 4-year-old Teddy pleaded.

_"Not today, Teddy, I'm sorry," Harry said apologetically. He had dark circles under his eyes, his face worn and drawn as he hung up his Auror's cloak. Harry had been out all night, after Kingsley's lynx had come running into the kitchen just when Teddy was about to go to bed. As Ginny had been shooing him off, he heard the lynx saying, in Kingsley's voice, _"Greyback and his gang have attacked a family down in the village..."

_"Please, Harry, can't we play outside?" Teddy asked again. "It's so nice out there..."_

_Harry sighed. "All right, Teddy, but stay inside the yard today."_

_

* * *

_

"Ah, Mr Potter, just the man I wanted to see today!" came the pleasant voice of a woman as she entered the yard.

_"What do you want, Umbridge?" Harry asked sharply, gesturing for Teddy to come to him._

_"And just the boy I needed to find as well," Umbridge continued pleasantly. "As you have doubtlessly heard, Mr Potter, there was quite the gruesome werewolf attack in the village last night."_

_"I know, I was there to deal with the aftermath," Harry said tersely._

_"And seeing as there's only one werewolf's name registered in Cheswick..."_

_"There are no werewolves registered in Cheswick," Harry said tightly, his grip tightening on Teddy. "The only one there was has been dead for four years, so I very much doubt he had anything to do with last night."_

_"As a matter of caution, the name of one Ted Remus Lupin, born April 3, 1998 in Cheswick, was added to the list. After all, he is the son of a known werewolf..."_

_"That's me," Teddy spoke up innocently. "But I'm not a werewolf. Don't you know you have to prove that you're a werewolf before you get put on the list? My dad was a werewolf, though. I'm named for him, you know, he's a hero."_

_"You're quite right, Teddy," Harry said affectionately, ruffling his hair. "I would leave, Umbridge, if I were you, and check your memos. We released the names of the attackers last night. Have you even seen the house?"_

_"Well, no, there are procedures to be followed – "_

_"Well, go take a look and tell me whether or not you think a single four-year-old could do that sort of damage. Goodbye, Umbridge."_

_"What's going on here?" Ginny asked as she Apparated in from practice. "What are you doing here?"_

_"Regardless, the Dangerous Creatures office wants him in to answer questions about last night."_

_"Goodbye, Umbridge," Harry repeated._

_

* * *

_

"That family's boy was hardly any older than Teddy!" he heard Harry hissing at Ginny that night as he pretended to fall asleep, his head in Harry's lap. "The poor kid got bitten and mauled half to death, baby got killed... The boy's in critical condition at St. Mungo's, I've spent half the night trying to calm his hysterical grandparents. They're Muggles, can't get in to see him, they can't understand half of what we're telling them ... I don't think they quite understand what's happened, they couldn't figure out why they needed to move out of the town once the boy is released from hospital..."

_"What did Umbridge want?" Ginny asked softly. "I take it wasn't a social call?"_

_Teddy felt Harry's fingers begin combing through his hair lightly, his voice cold as ice and just as hard as he said, "She wanted Teddy. Doubtlessly wanted to 'dispose' of him as a dangerous creature, tried to pin the blame for the attack on him."_

_"Why's she going after Teddy? He's not even a werewolf, he's not on the Register."_

_"Apparently she added him as a 'precaution' since he's the son of a known werewolf. I was quite proud of him today, he told her off in that cute little way of his. 'Don't you know you have to prove you're a werewolf before you get put on the list?'"_

_Ginny laughed softly._

* * *

"Oh, was it your family that was killed?" Teddy asked. "I remember that, Harry was one of the Ministry wizards on the scene to sort through it." He looked at Marcus for a second. "I thought the kid was bitten."

"He was," Marcus replied softly, pulling the neck of his sweater down to reveal the old, ugly scar. "I'm a full-blown werewolf. The headmistress says they've had werewolf students before without any difficulties, so they can do it again."

"Probably going to use the Shrieking Shack, that's what they used when my dad was in school," Teddy said knowledgeably. "So do you know anything about Hogwarts?"

"Not a humongous lot," Marcus admitted. Jesse shook his head.

"I know that my parents' uniforms were all blue and bronze and there were ravens everywhere, but I can't imagine what for," Marcus said.

"Oh, your parents were Ravenclaws, that was their house," Teddy said. "There are four houses in Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. They're named after the four founders of the school – Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin. If there's a house you _don't_ want to be in, it's Slytherin. Almost all the Dark wizards came from there... My family was mostly Gryffindor. My dad and Harry and Ginny and her family all were. My mum was a Hufflepuff..."

"How do they decide what house you go into?" Jesse interrupted curiously.

"There's a ceremony called 'the Sorting' right at the start-of-term feast tonight. Harry says we have to battle a mountain troll, but I think he's lying, because Ginny laughs way too hard when he says that. George – that's one of my uncles, well, step-uncle, really, he's Ginny's brother – says there's some sort of potion-swallowing, but I think _he's_ lying as well... Charlie – that's another step-uncle – says we have to tackle dragons, but I'm pretty sure he's lying..."

"So really, you don't know," Marcus summarized.

"Not a clue. Can't be that bad, I mean, most of the class won't know anything about magic yet and they wouldn't sic trolls and dragons on first-years..."

* * *

"It's a hat. It's a manky old hat," Jesse said bluntly. "How in the world do you sorted by a hat?"

Both he and Marcus jumped back slightly when the Hat started howling some off-key song about camaraderie and not tickling sleeping dragons and lions and snakes and badgers. "It's singing," he hissed at Teddy. "How is it singing?"

"_Why_ is it singing?" Marcus hissed from the other side of Teddy.

"I don't know, but Harry's going to get an owl tonight for telling me all these tales of trolls and dragons and battles," Teddy muttered.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward. "Aberdeen, Lauren!" she called out, and a nervous-looking brunette stepped forward. The hat sat upon her head for a few moments before announcing to the crowds,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The table filled with scarlet-and-gold-clad students burst into cheers and raucously welcomed their newest member.

"Adamson, Cale!"... "HUFFLEPUFF!" The yellow-and-black-clad table burst into applause this time.

"Andrysiak, Zofia!"... "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Aron, Sagewood!"

* * *

Marcus leaned over to Teddy. "Shouldn't it be Aron Sagewood, not Sagewood Aron?"

"Nope, her name is Sagewood. Her dad works at the Aurors' Office with Harry," Teddy replied in a low voice. "Word to the wise, though? Call her Sage."

* * *

Sage was sent promptly to Ravenclaw, the blue-and-bronze table.

"Avery, Zankhana!" became the first Slytherin – the green-and-silver table conveniently placed across the hall from the Gryffindors.

"Ballester, Georgia!"... "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Blayney, Abigail!"... Ravenclaw.

"Burke, Lachlan!"... Slytherin.

* * *

"Yeah, see, all the Slytherins so far have all been the pureblood lot," Teddy said under his breath to Jesse and Marcus. "Avery and Burke were both sent to Azkaban for Death-Eater activity. Azkaban's the wizards' prison," he added in explanation.

* * *

"Cadwallader, Nanaly!"... Ravenclaw.

"Clisham, Macartan!"... Slytherin.

"Davis, Ignatius!" went into Hufflepuff, and then, "Dylan, Marcus!" was called.

Taking a deep breath, Marcus went up on the stage, pale. Teddy held his breath, hoping that Marcus would be put into Gryffindor: he quite liked this guy. Finally, the hat announced, "GRYFFINDOR!" and Marcus quickly dashed off the stage, apparently quite pleased to be out of the spotlight.

"Flint, Andrelle!" and "Gudgeon, Joselyn!" both went to Slytherin, followed by "Hallows, Morgandy!" to Gryffindor.

Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw both received one more student apiece, "Isaacson, Catrina!" and "Kallis, Osric!" before "Korbin, Jesse!" was announced. Jesse was sent to Gryffindor after much deliberation by the part of the 'manky old hat', and then finally, his name was called.

* * *

"Lupin, Ted!" The room seemed to fall silent and time seemed to stop, though Teddy was aware that it wasn't really possible for time to stop.

It was true, however, that the room had fallen silent: the name Lupin was well-known amongst this generation as two of the greatest heroes of the Dark Wars... after all, were their bodies not buried right here, on Hogwarts grounds at the right hand of the greatest wizard in their parents' lifetimes: Albus Dumbledore? Were their names not repeated every year at the memorial service? Were they not part of the posthumous awarding of the Order of Merlin, First Class, awarded by Minister Shacklebolt and Head Auror Potter to the members of the Order of the Phoenix, who had fought so long and so hard and lost so much?

"Oh, Merlin, they're all staring at me," Teddy muttered under his breath as he slipped up onto the stool.

"They'll tire of it in time, Lupin," McGonagall said back to him softly, dropping the hat onto his head.

_"Ah, yes, young Mr Lupin... I remember your parents well, I do. They were particularly hard to place... Both brave souls, both gentle souls... You, however, are not as hard to place. It's clear where I should put you... GRYFFINDOR!"_

"Did you have to yell so loudly?" Teddy muttered darkly as he flinched and McGonagall lifted the hat off his head, gently shooing him off towards the Gryffindor table.

* * *

There were three Hufflepuffs in quick sucession: "Markham, Kagan!", "Matas, Lindsay!" and "O'Neill, Tiffany!", followed by two Ravenclaws, "Parris, Waldorf!" and "Rider, Quillan!", and another Hufflepuff, "Rogers, Gabriel!"

The dark-haired boy who had riled Teddy so much on the train was the next one up: "Rosier, Hayden!" Obviously, the boy went straight to Slytherin. "Stackpole, Paige!" was sent to Ravenclaw, and then Gryffindor received its last students, "Tierney, Brianna!" and "Wanlosky, Kryton!".

It didn't take long for the last five students to be sorted: "Wilkes, Myrlene!" and "Yaxley, Sagittarius!" to Slytherin, "Yamovski, Halley!" and "Zellweger, Daeton!" to Hufflepuff, and "Yarwood, Maddexa!" to Ravenclaw.

* * *

At long last, it was finished and the blessed food appeared on the tables.

"Thank you, I am _starving_!" Kryton exclaimed, immediately piling his plate.

"Hear, hear!" Jesse agreed.

"So where are you from?" Kryton asked through a mouthful of chicken. "Sorry," he added after a moment, "my mother insists that I lack some sort of table manners."

The three other boys all laughed. "Nah, that's fine," Teddy said. "We're all from Cheswick, actually, discovered that on the train here. You?"

"Spinner's End," Kryton replied. "Known here and abroad as a place that rarely produces wizards. Apparently there's only been two in the entire history of the town. They're both dead, which doesn't bode well for me, really..."


	11. Rivalry Is In The Blood, Pt 2

**Chapter 10: Rivalry Is In The Blood, Part 2**

**(Or, Teddy's First Term)**

"But... where's all the normal classes?" Jesse asked in confusion, looking at his timetable. "The stuff like maths, language arts, sciences, history..."

"Well, there's History of Magic right there," Teddy said with a tone of somebody explaining the obvious, pointing to Wednesday morning. "Apparently nobody stays awake through that one. Taught by a ghost." At Jesse and Marcus' jaws dropping, he grinned. "I'm being entirely serious. Professor Binns is a ghost. Fell asleep in an armchair one night and got up to the next morning to teach and left his body behind, according to legend. Been around for quite a while."

"Yeah, all right, but where's all the other stuff? I mean, aren't we supposed to have, like, maths and stuff?" Marcus asked, examining his timetable.

"Why?" Teddy and Kryton both asked blankly. "You can do your sums, can't you?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"That's all you really need. S'long as you can count," Kryton said with a dismissive air. "The only class that really uses it is Potions, any way. You don't happen to know who teaches that, eh?" he asked Teddy.

"Yeah, sure I do," Teddy replied. "Professor Slughorn. I know almost all the professors here, a lot of them were either Order of the Phoenix or Dumbledore's Army."

"So what's he, an elf?" Jesse asked, with a valiant stab at humour.

"No, just a fat old man who plays favourites," Teddy said.

There was a faint crack beside them at the breakfast table and Teddy whirled around. "Kreacher!" he exclaimed.

The old house-elf really was that: old. Now nearly useless anywhere, the Hogwarts house-elves had taken in the decrepit old Kreacher and were caring tenderly for him, though he would still hobble to his feet if his Master Harry was in need.

"Master Teddy should not say such things about his teachers, no he shouldn't, Master Teddy will heap most grievous shame on his godfather's head, he who slew the Dark Lord, who has most noble heart..."

"What is it, Kreacher?" Teddy laughed, ignoring the elf's reprimand and cutting off the soppy house-elf love sonnet.

"Mistress Ginny wishes for Master Teddy to be reminded that she has contacts and Master Teddy should make most valiant attempts to behave himself or she will find out."

"Thank you, Kreacher, I'll keep that in mind," Teddy said. "Did she honestly make you come all the way up here just to tell me that?"

"No, Mistress Ginny asked Winky to do it, but Winky was having too much Butterbeer again last night so Kreacher took it upon himself to do the bidding of his Master Harry's wife, because Kreacher is a good house-elf, yes, he does what what his family wishes of him... Yes, yes, Kreacher's Mistress Black always said Kreacher was a good, good house-elf, it is a shame that she is gone, and all my mistress' lovely things, awful filth destroying the most noble house of Black, Kreacher cried for months..." He disappeared with another crack, still mumbling away to himself eulogies for Grimmauld Place and its family.

"Wh-what was that?" Marcus asked uneasily.

"Oh, that was a house-elf," Kryton replied.

"Are they all like that?" Jesse asked.

"Dunno, never met one in real life, heard about them from my dad," Kryton said.

"Yeah, they're all pretty much like that," Teddy said.

"All pay homage to the one who knows everything except how the sorting is done!" Marcus said with a mock worship bow.

Teddy laughed.

* * *

"Hey!" came Rosier's hiss from across the Potions classroom. "Hey, half-breed!"

"Just ignore him, please?" Marcus whispered under his breath to Teddy. "I don't want to get chucked for being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Teddy nodded slightly, casting a glare in Rosier's direction. "All right," he muttered.

"Hey, is it true that werewolves eat their young? Obviously you didn't taste so good, or else your mother – "

"Sorry, Marcus," Teddy muttered, "but I can't take him and his bile. _Silencio_!" he shouted, casting the spell at Rosier.

Rosier's eyes grew wide, he dodged the spell narrowly and he shot another spell towards Teddy, who ducked just in time. The spell ricocheted off a brass cauldron, which teetered dangerously on its feet for a moment before resettling.

"_Sectumsempra!_" Rosier yelled, and many of the eyes in the classroom went wider than saucers.

The spell grazed Teddy's arm as he dove aside, slashing his wand arm open. As his wand dropped to the ground and rolled out of his reach, Rosier raised his wand again.

"_Petrificus Totalis!_" Teddy shouted, flinging out his hand. That one managed to hit Rosier just as his final curse came flying at Teddy, who narrowly avoided it, but resulted in striking the brass caudron with such force that its contents exploded, along with the cauldron.

Teddy managed to get to his feet, and ignoring the shocked eyes of his classmates and the surprised yell of the professor as he entered, stumbling over to Rosier, said, "I would shut up about werewolves if I were you. At least my family wasn't Death-Eaters." He delivered a swift kick to the frozen Slytherin's stomach. "_That_ was for calling my father filth." He smashed his foot into Rosier's face. "_That _was for calling my mother a mutant." He delivered one final kick just as Slughorn was prying him off. "_That_ was for being a git."

"What happened here?" Slughorn demanded, still holding Teddy back.

Immediately, two different versions of the story arose, the Gryffindors yelling about being provoked and the Slytherins screaming about attacking without reason.

"The both of you, on your feet," Slughorn ordered as he unfroze Rosier. "Straight to the headmistress! Astounding, first day and dueling in a classroom... Ought to expel the both of you... Broke my brass cauldron... present from Andremischa Hendryvitch... had it since before either of your parents were a twinkle in _their_ parents' eyes... broke my brass cauldron..."

* * *

"Mr Rosier, I must impress upon you the seriousness of what you did," McGonagall said sternly. "That was a curse used only by the darkest of wizards. That alone would be sufficient to have you sent to Azkaban for a number of months."

Rosier muttered something indistinct under his breath, still gingerly touching his newly repaired nose.

"One hundred points from Slytherin and a month of detention," McGonagall decided. "You may return to class. Mr Lupin," she continued, turning to the pale-faced boy.

"I want him in the hospital wing for the rest of the day, Minerva," Madame Pomfrey said, fixing working at getting Teddy's arm to stop bleeding.

"I'm not going to lose the arm, am I?" Teddy asked anxiously.

"Oh, good heavens, I hope not," Madame Pomfrey replied distractedly. "Continue on, Minerva."

"Mr Lupin, as I understand it, Mr Rosier was trying to get a rise out of you. However, that does not excuse starting such a brawl inside a classroom."

"But Professor!" Teddy exclaimed. "He – "

"I am well aware of Mr Rosier's standings on a number of subjects," McGonagall interrupted him. "I would have hoped that your godfather would have taught you to ignore such petty attempts at provocation. Heavens knows that he and Draco Malfoy had enough of them during their years here." Sighing, she looked at the boy for a moment. "I suppose that I shouldn't be so surprised. Rivalry seems to run in your family's blood."

"So what do I get as punishment?" Teddy asked in a mumble.

"I think we'll let your godfather decide that," McGonagall said, and Teddy looked up to see Harry coming into the headmistress' office.

"What are you doing here?" Teddy asked immediately.

"I was here on Ministry business," Harry replied. "Can I ask what preceded this?"

"Let us just say that he and Hayden Rosier are going down the same path as yourself and Draco Malfoy," McGonagall said dryly as she headed out of the office.

"Here, I'll handle this," Harry said to Madame Pomfrey, who merely sniffed and said,

"Bring him straight to the hospital wing when you're through, if you please."

"What happened?" Harry asked again, crouching down to keep working on Teddy's arm. "From what I understand of it from Neville, he's been goading you?"

"Neville told you about yesterday?" Teddy asked.

"Professor Longbottom to you, and yeah, he owled me. Seemed to think it would happen again. What'd he say?"

"He called Dad filth," Teddy muttered, and he felt Harry's hand tighten on his arm, "and he said Mum was a mutant and a disgrace... and then he was saying that werewolves – "

"All right, Teddy, I get the gist of it," Harry said quietly.

"Well, what was I supposed to do, let him get away with saying that?" Teddy demanded in righteous anger. "That's, like, the same as saying I agree with him!"

"This is where a responsible parent would say to 'be the better man', 'take the higher road', 'ignore him'," Harry said. "Me, on the other hand, would've done exactly what you did, so I can't say that in honesty. Unfortunately you've inherited the Marauder temper, which cannot be checked when one of them has been wronged." He sighed. "However, Professor McGonagall will be expecting some form of punishment. So, how's twenty points and two weeks detention sound?"

"A lot better than Rosier's," Teddy admitted.

"But do be careful, Teddy, all right?" Harry said, getting to his feet. "I don't want Dolores Umbridge coming down here screaming about dangerous sons of werewolves."

"Yeah, all right," Teddy replied, getting to his feet.

* * *

Teddy sighed as he eyed his reflection in the mirror. "I think I'm tired of brown," he announced to the others.

"Hear, hear," both Kryton and Marcus spoke up.

Teddy contemplated it for a moment. "Maybe... think I'll make it blue for a while, and longer."

"How do you expect to make it – " Jesse started to ask, then let out a yell when Teddy managed to style it in under ten seconds.

"Ha! Eight seconds, personal best!"

"How'd you do that?" Jesse yelped.

"You're a Metamorphmagus," Kryton said, impressed.

"Yeah, got it from my mum, she was one too," Teddy said dismissively, shaking his hair out of his eyes and returning to his Transfiguration homework.

"How'd you do that?" Jesse repeated.

"I just thought it and it happened, that's what a Metamorphmagus does," Teddy shrugged. "Been able to do it since the day I was born, except I couldn't control it back then. Used to flip colours five or six times a day, according to Harry."

"Can you _learn_ that?" Marcus asked interestedly.

"Nope."

* * *

"Well, what's this Quick-Ditch?" Jesse asked as the school was making its way down to the pitch for the first match of the season (Hufflepuff versus Gryffindor). "I still don't get it. What's Quick-Ditch?"

"It's not Quick-Ditch, it's Kwimmits, isn't it?" Marcus said, looking at Teddy.

Teddy actually flinched. "It's Quidditch. _Quidditch_. And it's only the biggest sport in the wizarding world. Ginny actually played semi-pro until I was about 6. National team tried to get Harry to play when I was 7, but he never did, he was just starting full-time at the Aurors' Office then..."

"How do you play?" Jesse asked.

"Well..."

* * *

"Ah! What kind of barbaric game is this?" Marcus yelped, watching as one of the Hufflepuff Chasers went down after being struck by a Bludger.

"Barbaric? I think it's brilliant!" Jesse laughed, leaning over the railing to try and see better.

"Remind me to take you to the next World Cup so you can see some _real_ Quidditch!" Teddy laughed in return. "Ginny always gets us in free since she's with the _Prophet_ and ex-Harpies."

"This is brilliant, I love it!" Jesse exclaimed. "Oh, look, there's a little gold one down there, what's that for?"

"Where?" Teddy asked, looking down where Jesse was gesturing. "I don't see it."

"Well, it's gone now. What's the little gold one for?"

"That's the Snitch. The Seekers try to catch that one. First one to catch it ends the game and earns the team 150 points. Usually means they win. Ginny's been Seeker before. Charlie was a Seeker. Harry was a Seeker. You ought to see the competitions Harry and Charlie get into when Charlie's in from Romania and they go after the Snitch. Oh, oh, look, the Gryffindor Seeker's spotted it! Go! Gogogogogogogo!"

"Oh, no, he's going to miss it," Jesse said, following the Seeker on his way down.

"I hate this game," Marcus said bluntly as the Hufflepuff Seeker threw the Gryffindor Seeker into the walls.

"You're a barbarian," Teddy laughed.

"You're the barbarian."

* * *

"You ought to come down for a day or so during Christmas break, Teddy," Marcus said brightly as the train was pulling into King's Cross Station. "My grandparents would think you're so wonderful..."

"Yeah," Teddy started to say, when he spotted his grandmother waiting on the platform. "Oh, no, I'm at Willow Hollow for Christmas this year, that's right. Easter, then. I'm in Cheswick for Easter."

"What?" Jesse asked.

"Harry and my grandmother split custody," Teddy explained, grabbing the seat ledge as the train ground to a stop. "I'm with Grandmum for Christmas and July this year." He frowned momentarily, counting out holidays. "Yeah, Christmas and July."

"Don't you get used to it?" Jesse asked. "I mean, if they've split custody..."

"I expect I will," Teddy said, "but it's the first year they've actually done it, so I'm still a little confused. Before that, I've always lived with Harry and Ginny."

* * *

"Happy Christmas, Teddy darling, it's good to have you back again!" Andromeda said, hugging her grandson tightly. "How was your first term?"

"Grandmum..." Teddy muttered as he quickly returned the hug and then wriggled out of her grasp before she could kiss him.

"Oh, I forgot, we're in public," Andromeda laughed, ruffling his red hair affectionately. "It's not cool to be kissed in public. Come on, then."

* * *

"So tell me about your classmates," Andromeda prompted at dinner. "Who's in Gryffindor with you?"

"Well, there's eight of us, four boys, four girls."

"Anybody I would know? Or at least whose parents or grandparents I would know?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, what's the family names?" Andromeda slid into her chair. "Trust me, darling, I grew up with Blacks, I know all the wizarding world's families."

"Jesse's Muggleborn, so definitely don't know him. Um, Marcus' parents were both Muggleborn, Dylan is the name."

"Nope, don't recognize it. Your mum probably knew them, they were likely around her age."

"Wanlosky is the other boy, Kryton."

"Name sounds vaguely familiar, might've been starting Hogwarts when I finished."

"The girls are Aberdeen, Andrysiak, Hallows and Tierney."

"I had a Ravenclaw boy in my year who was a Hallows. One in Hufflepuff one year below was an Aberdeen. And I went out once with a Gryffindor named Andrysiak. This is all before I discovered your grandfather existed, of course..."

* * *

Teddy yawned as he crawled into bed. It still seemed so unfamiliar, so strange to be going to sleep here, in the quiet without the sounds of Harry and Ginny talking below, without the sounds of Jay tossing and turning in the room next to him and the sounds of Al kicking the bars of his bed in his sleep and the sounds of Lee whining from her room...

He wondered if Jay and Al had put up a fuss when they realized that he wasn't going to be there for Christmas.


	12. Christmas Chaos

A/N: Just a little bit of Christmas drabble for this one.

**Chapter 11: Christmas Chaos**

"Daddy, it's not _faaaaaaair_..." Al sobbed, fighting against Harry's arm as his father hoisted him up over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know, Al, but life isn't fair," Harry sighed, casting a glance at Ginny, who just shrugged and shook her head wearily, scooping up Lily from the ground. "Jay, come on, we have to go."

"Are we going to go pick up Teddy now?" Jay asked hopefully, which made Al stop crying immediately.

"Yeah, are we going to pick up Teddy?" he asked with a sniffle.

Harry sighed. "No, I've told you two already, Teddy is at his grandmum's for Christmas. He's not coming to the Burrow with us. Jay, put on your cloak and your boots right now."

"But Teddy _has_ to come to the Burrow with us, he _always_ does..." Jay pleaded.

"James! Cloak, boots, now!"

* * *

"Just in time, I thought you were going to be late..." Molly fussed over her youngest set, bustling out from the loud and rambunctious kitchen with her apron splattered with food. "Harry, dear, happy Christmas..." she gave him a peck on the cheek, then turned to Al. "Al, sweet, what's the matter?" she asked gently, prying her teary grandson off of Harry. "Come see Nan, she knows just what'll put a smile on that face of yours. Jay, you too. I expect Fred and Louis might've still left some sweets..."

"Yeah, sweets!" Jay and Al both exclaimed, all tears forgotten in the wake of Nan's treats.

"Forgot all about me," Ginny said in a mock hurt tone. "Her own daughter... forgot me..."

Lily let out a yell of indignity. "Nan!"

"Oh, Lily, kitten, come here," Molly cooed, swiping the baby. "Nan didn't forget you either. Ginny, sweetheart, happy Christmas, I'm sorry."

"No worries, Mum," Ginny laughed, returning her mother's hug. "Jay! Al! No sweets until _after_ dinner!"

"But Nan said!..."

* * *

"Hey guys, made it, I see," George greeted with a grin, getting Alyssa wrestled into her high chair.

"Yeah, at long last," Ginny replied, sliding into her own chair at the table. "James Sirius Potter, I said no sweets!" she said sternly, moving the bowl of chocolate by magic out of her son's reach. "Come sit down next to Mummy, and you can have sweets after dinner."

"Now, are we all here?" Molly said briskly, looking around the table. "Let me see... Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Nikki, Louis... Charlie will be here later, he said... Percy, Audrey... George, Katie, Fred, Alyssa... Ron, Hermione, Rose, Hugo... Harry, Ginny – well, where's Teddy?"

Harry had quickly shaken his head right before she'd started on their family, but to no avail. Al burst into tears again and Jay started complaining again.

"Jay, stop it, we've had this discussion before," Ginny said irritably, groaning as Lily, taking cue from her big brothers, started crying. Sighing in resignation, Harry hoisted Al up from his chair and tried to calm him down.

"Teddy's with Andromeda for Christmas this year," Harry said quietly.

The kitchen door opened just then, and Charlie entered, quickly followed by two more cloaked figures.

"Ah, there you are, I was starting to get worried," Molly said cheerfully, giving her second-eldest a kiss on the cheek. "Have a seat, Charlie."

"Well, go on, go sit down, sleepyhead," came Andromeda's light voice from the taller figure, as she removed her hood.

Jay and Al immediately lit up like Christmas trees. "TEDDY!"

Scrambling down from their chairs, they both tackled the smaller figure, whose hood fell down to reveal Teddy's happy face.

"Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, you're going to sit by me, right?" Jay was asking excitedly, tugging at Teddy's hand.

"No, he's going to sit with _me_!" Al protested. "Right, Teddy?"

"Sorry we're a little late, he had a bit of a late start," Andromeda apologized to Molly as she slid into one of the empty chairs.

"All right, both of you, enough!" Harry finally called over top of Jay and Al's happy bickering. "Go sit back down in your chairs. You, come here," he ordered with a smile, wrapping an arm around Teddy. Landing a quick kiss on his cheek, he asked in a low voice, "Did you like the 'b-r-o-o-m'?"

"Yeah, it's brilliant, thanks," Teddy replied, grinning at his godfather and then going to let Ginny give him a quick kiss.

"Good. Keep it out of _their _hands," Ginny laughed, shooing him back to his seat.

"It's your fault we're late," Andromeda told them frankly. "Out catapulting to and fro on that 'b-r-o-o-m' of his... Must've crashed into about five trees..."

"It's great," Teddy repeated with a grin, sliding into the empty seat between Andromeda and Harry.

"What kind is it?" Victoire asked curiously from across the table.

"I know what kind it is, and no, you're not getting one," Bill said bluntly.

"Teddy, what kind is it?"

"It's a 'F-i-r-e-b-o-l-t'," Teddy said with a grin.

"No way!" Victoire exclaimed.

"Why is everybody spelling?" Fred demanded.

Jay, meanwhile, was mouthing out the letters to himself, a deep frown of concentration on his face. Moments later, he burst out, "_I_ want a broom!"

Laughter erupted around the table and the food started to be passed around.

* * *

"Ow! Teddy!"

"Be quiet, Victoire, it was an accident!"

"It wasn't an accident, you _meant_ to push me!"

"Oh, for goodness' sake," both Bill and Andromeda muttered as they got to their feet.

"Ted Lupin, you be a gentleman!" Andromeda called warningly. "Come back out here!"

"It was an _accident_!!" Teddy protested, dodging Victoire's foot as he came back into the sitting room. "It was an accident, and she's attacking me!"

"Victoire Weasley, _sois une demoiselle!_" Fleur called authoritatively. (Be a lady.)

"But Maman..." Victoire exclaimed indignantly, appearing behind Teddy. "He _pushed_ me!"

"It was an _accident_!"

* * *

"All right, Teddy, we have to get going," Andromeda said, looking outside at the setting sun.

"Do we really?" Teddy asked through a stifled yawn.

"Yes, we do. Say goodbye," she replied.

"Happy Christmas, Teddy," Harry said as Teddy hugged him tightly. "We'll see you at Easter, okay?"

Teddy indulgently made his way around the room, had more than a few admonitions from Ginny to 'be good', and then did up his cloak to take off after Andromeda.


	13. Musing of the Heart

**Chapter 12: Musings of the Heart**

_March 26, 2010:_

"Teddy's coming home today, Teddy's coming home today..." Jay was singsonging happily as he clattered downstairs to the kitchen. Al wasn't far behind him, laughing as he managed to elbow in before Jay. "Mummy, Teddy's coming home today!"

"Yes, darling, I know," Ginny said, setting down their cereal bowls in front of them. Lily was already secured into her high chair, banging her spoon happily on the tray in time with Jay's song. "Happy birthday, Jay, sweetheart. Eat up, we're going to go meet Daddy at the Ministry after we pick up Teddy."

Had it really been six years?, she wondered to herself as she listened to her newly-6-year-old chattering away excitedly with her 4-year-old about what they were going to do first with Teddy when he got in. Had it really been six years since this little boy had burst into her life, full of shrieks and laughs and kicks?

"Mummy, we're done!" Al announced, pushing his bowl to her. "Mummy, can we go get Teddy now?"

"Oh, goodness, no, darling, Teddy's train doesn't arrive until 1," Ginny laughed. "It's only 9 now. Tell you what, though, we'll go down to London and go shopping for a while. The three of you need to find presents for Teddy's birthday on Saturday."

"Yeah, that's right, and I get to open _my_ presents tonight, right, when Teddy's home?" Jay asked eagerly.

* * *

"Teddy!" Al shrieked excitedly, waving frantically at the boy as he was getting off the train with his friends. "Teddy, here!"

Teddy's face split into a grin and he ran up to meet them. Immediately, Jay and Al tackled him in delight, giggling happily when he returned their hugs with equal enthusiasm. "Hi, Ginny!" he greeted cheerfully, letting her wrap him into a tight hug and kiss his cheek affectionately.

"Mmm, darling, it's good to have you back again," Ginny said, laughing as he ducked away from a second kiss and went to greet Lily, who was yelling in outrage at being forgotten.

"Hey, Lee, I didn't forget you," he said, kissing her cheek.

* * *

"Notice how they all stare at us?" Katie laughed as she snagged the back of Fred's jumper again, hoisting her son back up onto his seat at the food court. "Frederick Weasley, you sit still."

"Well, mine _are_ making a lot of noise," Ginny admitted dryly.

"I think it's our sheer volume, actually," Hermione said. "Between the six of us, we have how many kids here right now?"

"15," Audrey supplied.

"Teddy, how do you get sorted?" Victoire asked nervously. "Dad's been telling me all sorts of stories, and I don't know which one to believe..."

"Guess you'll have to find out in September," Teddy replied with a grin.

Victoire's face went outraged. "Hey, that's not fair! Tell me!"

"I'm not telling you, that's against Hogwarts rules," Ted said seriously. "You can't tell first-years how they're sorted, not even when they beg."

"Maman!"

"Victoire, I do not know 'ow zey sort students at 'Ogwarts," Fleur laughed. "I went to Beauxbatons, remember?"

"Well, I know that! Make him tell! Aunt Ginny!"

* * *

"Well, if _I_ got told tales before _I_ went to Hogwarts, so should she!" Teddy exclaimed as they were walking into the Ministry.

"No, you're absolutely right, Teddy, I got told all sorts of tales as well, it's tradition," Ginny said, stopping at the security checkpoint.

"Afternoon, Ginny," Dean Thomas greeted as he reached out his hand for their wands. "In to drag Harry away?"

"Teddy, give him your wand a moment," Ginny instructed, passing Dean her wand.

"Why?" Teddy asked suspiciously, closing his hand tightly around it.

"Just need to register it, kid," Dean laughed. "Give it right back, I promise. So, Ginevra Potter, oak and unicorn hair, 12 inches?"

"That'd be mine," Ginny agreed, catching Jay by the shoulder before he took off ahead. "Hold on there, Jay. Teddy, just give him your wand, dear, he'll give it right back."

Reluctantly, Teddy passed his wand to Dean.

"Name is Theodore?" Dean asked.

"Ted, actually," Teddy replied, still watching him like a hawk. "Ted Lupin. L-u-p-_i-_n," he added suddenly, pointing to the parchment. "It's Lu-_pin_, not Lu-_pen_."

"Oh, right, sorry," Dean said, fixing it. "Lupin, eh?"

"Professor Remus Lupin was my dad," Ted said before Dean could even ask.

"Ah. I didn't even know he had a kid, actually. That's cool, I liked him. Balsa and dragon heartstring, 11.5 inches?"

"Yep."

"There you are, then."

"So how's Lavender and Matt?" Ginny asked. "Haven't seen her around for a while."

"St. Mungo's told her bedrest until the baby's born," Dean said, storing the parchments in a couple of compartments. "My mum's at the house helping out with Matt while I'm at work. Right little nightmare, he is, but wouldn't give him up for the world. Gotten rather fond of him," he said with a grin. "Seamus and Jackie keep bringing Daniel around to play."

"Mummy, enough talking!" Jay said impatiently, tugging at her sleeve. "We have to get Daddy!"

"Well, I'll let you get back to work, then," Ginny laughed, letting Jay pull her towards the lifts. "Nice seeing you again, Dean."

* * *

"I want to push the door open! I want to push the door open!" Al exclaimed, dashing up ahead to the doors of the Aurors' Office.

"Why does it matter?" Ginny muttered to herself as she let Lily down to the ground. Shrieking with delight at blessed freedom, Lily dashed to catch up with her older brothers, who were all tussling to be the first one into the office. Finally, the boys managed to get themselves through the door.

"Teddy, get the door!" Ginny called. "Before Lily – "

Like a bird off the window.

Lily crashed into the door, stumbled back and dropped to the ground, crying. Sighing, Ginny scooped her up. "Let Mummy see what you hurt now," she said.

* * *

Harry heard them from the second they exited the lift – his kids, after all, weren't particularly well known for their silent and subtle entrances (actually, he wasn't entirely sure any of them knew what 'silent and subtle' meant). But knowing how they liked to surprise him at work, he wisely stayed in his office, sorting through reports from the last week.

Proudfoot had tracked down Francis Travers to a certain Asylum for the Persecuted and Reformed Wizard in Transylvania. This asylum was the bane of Harry's existence, they thwarted him at every turn when a Death-Eater found his way there to escape punishment for his misdeeds. The Lestrange brothers, Thorfinn Rowle, Markos Jugson, Walden Macnair... they were all listed as hiding out there.

Henderson had caught a 17-year-old making boasts and threats about killing Muggleborns.

Dawlish, apparently still trying to recover his shattered image even after 13 years, was doggedly pursuing a number of leads on pro-Dark movements.

Aron was in the middle of cracking a ring of dangerous werewolves thought to be affiliated with Greyback and his gang.

Williamson had arrested an 18-year-old for using the Cruciatus on his 10-year-old brother. Parents were nowhere to be found.

Sighing, Harry set down the papers and watched the pictures stuck up on his wall for a bit, trying to regain faith in humanity. "You know what, guys?" he said to the five pictures. "I hate my job. I really do." He leaned back in his chair and smiled slightly.

* * *

The first picture was his wedding picture. Ginny was beaming at him delightedly, laughing without sound as his younger counterpart kissed her again and deflected the toddler Teddy's hands away from her lacy veil with a grin. Teddy shrieked soundlessly as Harry and Ginny both laughed and tickled him.

For a moment, Harry recalled how frustrated he had been, that his dress robes were old and worn, that Teddy's best clothes looked particularly ragged after his antics at the Hogwarts memorial, that Ginny's dress wasn't even new, which had to be humiliating because every bride deserved a new dress all her own, and this was definitely not the lavish ceremony he suspected Ginny had dreamed about for two years – it was drastically less elegant and elaborate than Bill and Fleur's wedding, at any rate. And then she had come out on Arthur's arm, smiling at him like there wasn't a problem in the world, and he'd realized that she truly didn't care. All she cared about was him.

* * *

A more recent Teddy grinned at him from the next picture, alongside the pictures of the other three children. Tanned from the summer sun, a mild bruise on his jaw from where Jay had chucked the Quaffle at him just a little too hard moments before, his hair its natural sandy brown and tumbling haphazardly around his face as the summer winds blew them around and he would shake his hair out of his eyes in a style so reminiscent of his mother it was a little frightening. Blue eyes sparkling, Teddy seemed to look at him with all the adoration a young boy could muster...

His firstborn. He would always consider Teddy his first child. It seemed like it was only yesterday that he'd realized that he was now a parent, that he now had complete responsibility for this tiny little creature in his arms.

Seemed like yesterday, yet seemed to be a million years ago, that he had spent countless sleepless nights with Teddy crying in his arms, trying desperately to soothe him without any way to fix what was wrong, those months filled with grief and hardship and difficulty when they hadn't any money, when the cottage was falling apart and he hadn't had the energy or the skill to fix it, when he'd had to let the baby go hungry at night because he didn't have enough to feed him at night, only during the day; when he'd gone without eating for days on end to make sure that Teddy got something in his stomach. Those first years, when he'd finally stretch clothes to their breaking point and realize with that sickening sense of shame and guilt that he couldn't afford new clothes. The terrible feeling of inadequacy, that this child he loved so much was suffering what he had sworn his children would never know, what he was reasonably certain Remus and Tonks had never wanted Teddy to know: complete and utter poverty. Wearing secondhand clothes mended and remended again until they literally broke apart. Going to bed hungry because there wasn't any food for him.

It seemed a lifetime ago that Remus had come bursting into Shell Cottage with that joyful shout of "It's a boy!..." and as though ages had passed since that terrible night three weeks later when Andromeda had given him to Harry, passing him over the bodies of the baby's parents. How many nights had Harry muffled his sobs into his pillow in that first year, heart aching for somebody to tell him what to do, how to properly care for this little boy who trusted him so? How many tears had slipped down his cheeks as he watched this baby's eyes following him, arms reaching out for him to simply hold him close, and feeling so dreadfully unprepared for this enormous task? How many times had he gone to the Burrow just for reassurances that he hadn't mucked it up, grasping at Arthur and Molly's calming words and advice like a drowning man at a rope?

Even Ginny didn't know just how desperate he'd been that first year, teetering on the edge between despair and depression, trapped between the wholehearted love for this happy, giggling little wonder and that horrible thought that he, Harry Potter, saviour of the wizarding world, the Chosen One, wasn't good enough for him. Then one day, Teddy had pulled himself to his feet in the sitting room without help or support, laughing with pride at his accomplishment and he'd looked at Harry with those wide blue eyes and he'd said one word: "Ree." And Harry realized that Teddy didn't care about any of the world's petty things like clothes and plenty of food and good parent vs bad parent. All he cared about was him.

* * *

Jay laughed from the third picture, bright brown eyes peeking out with their mischievous glint from beneath the wild black hair. He had the Quaffle responsible for Teddy's bruise in his hands, throwing it back and forth with Teddy's photo, oftentimes ducking a throw gone awry. Giggles would burst out from him at random moments and when the wind swept his hair into his face, he would throw it back with such Ginny-like flair...

The stereotype of the placid baby definitely had met its match in James Sirius Potter, who had been kicking pretty much since the moment he was conceived. There were days when Ginny would mutter about channeling spirits and glare at him darkly: it had been his idea, after all, to name his baby son after two of the most rambunctious students in the history of Hogwarts.

In a way, Harry was glad that they'd waited for so long to have him: all practicalities like finances aside, it had given him time to get over his own insecurities, had given him time to figure out that he _could_ do this and he wasn't a complete shambles at the whole parenting thing. It had given him time to focus on Teddy, to reassure his godson that he would not be forgotten or shunted aside at any time in his life when visions of a little boy living in the cupboard under the stairs would flash through his mind.

He'd been lucky enough to stay at home for a year with Jay: Ginny had still had a year left on her contract with the Harpies. He'd had a whole year to bond with his baby boy, to teach him all the things, as Ron had jokingly put it, 'a good Marauder should know'.

And oh, did he have good Marauders in his house, in particular Teddy and Jay. It delighted him. Even the infamous Teddy-jumping-off-the-roof incident, which Ginny still berated him for seven years after the fact, just reconfirmed to him that yes, the Marauders were still very much alive and kicking in the third generation. They had guts, they had heart, they had imagination and brains and charisma...

His Jay was his valiant Gryffindor. He messed about with Al unmercifully, he tormented Teddy something awful, and he drove Lily to tears, but beware the outsider who tried to do the same thing. Because that was when the tough kid – Ginny half-jokingly called it 'the Weasley in him' – sprang to life and beat them up. And then he'd go right back to the charming little man and offer a fix-it solution to whomever had been wronged: be it his Chocolate Frog offered to Al, kisses to Lily or a game of Quaffle with Teddy. (This, as Harry insisted, was the Potter in him.)

* * *

Al was sitting on the grass outside in the fourth picture, grinning in that beguiling little way of his as he occasionally ducked a wayward Quaffle from his brothers' pictures. Unruly black hair blowing away from his face, his grandmother's eyes bright and wide, Ginny often said that she imagined he looked quite like Harry must've looked at four. To this, he always replied, rather bitterly, that he had been quite a lot skinnier and a whole lot paler, thanks to cupboards under the stairs and runty meals. At that, Ginny would simply sniff and kiss his cheek, a reminder that no, his child was not suffering like he had.

Harry called him his perfectly-timed child. When Ginny's contract with the Harpies had ended, she had been just about three months along, and Kingsley had been champing at the bit to get him on-staff: Ron wanted to go help George with the business, stating it was more along his lines of excitement than Auror-hood, and Neville wanted to take the opened Herbology professor position at Hogwarts, by the retiring Professor Sprout's recommendation. It had been perfectly timed for the household income to increase ever so slightly, to be able to put that addition onto the cottage, creating that second floor with the two extra rooms that they had ended up needing. He had been perfectly-timed to arrive in that small window of a few months of relative peace, when Harry hadn't needed to work overtime at the Ministry and could properly spend time with his boys.

Al was his quiet one. Or about as quiet as one could expect the offspring of a Potter and a Weasley to be. He had to be a certain degree of loud, just be heard over Teddy and Jay, but one was more likely to see him pondering how to best manage his mischief rather than simply diving into it like his older brothers.

* * *

And finally, his last picture held the cheerful face of his little princess, his beloved only girl, his Lily. Her mother's bright red hair tumbling in curls around his face, sparkling brown baby's eyes watching him delightedly from the wall as she clapped happily.

Lily was the only other child besides Teddy had he'd ever had to face his insecurities for. All those irrational fears and dismays that he thought he'd conquered, had all come rushing back that night. Arthur assured him time and time again that it really was quite natural, girls simply did that to a man, he'd had the same thoughts when Ginny was born, but Harry wasn't sure that Arthur had quite grasped just how deep his insecurities ran.

He'd missed Lily's birth, and it was an acute pain stabbing at his heart. He'd spent probably most of the first month of her life out chasing Greyback and his gang around the country, he'd been gone tracking a rogue Hit Wizard in the month that she'd learned to walk, learned to talk, and he still had that deep-set, illogical fear that she resented him for it.

But when she was in his arms, he had no such qualms. There was no doubting that she was the craziest out of the four, forever giggling madly and driving the boys mad, demanding the attention she thought she rightly deserved and so often received. Remembering that comment that Dumbledore had made to Snape, in those memories bequeathed to him, that he was his father in looks, but his mother in nature, he had to admit that his daughter was quite the opposite: in looks her grandmother, but in nature her grandfather. And she'd more than likely inherited a bit of her second namesake as well: had he ever seen a child have so many accidents, besides Teddy?

* * *

He was interrupted from his musings by the shouts of his boys as they came careening into the Aurors' Office, Ginny calling after them with Lily sobbing. Smiling and stifling a laugh, Harry whirled his chair around to greet the boys as they came into his office. "Hey, guys!" he greeted, catching Al as he scrambled up onto Harry's lap and distributing hugs and kisses to everybody. "This is a surprise. Did you come straight from King's Cross?" he asked Teddy, giving him an extra kiss and a tousle of the hair.

"Well, no, we stopped and had some tea with the aunties," Jay cut in, just as Ginny entered the office.

"Daddy!" Lily sobbed, reaching her arms for him and Harry took her willingly, looking at Ginny questioningly.

"She had a tussle with the door," Ginny said dryly. "The door won."

* * *

"Daddy, can we have a story before bed?" Al asked, hopefully bringing over the children's book.

"Yeah, Daddy, just one," Jay agreed. "Teddy can pick it, even."

"But it's your birthday, Jay, you ought to pick it," Teddy said reasonably.

"I get to pick it all the time. You're only home for a week, you pick," Jay returned.

As Teddy flipped through the pages of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_, Harry managed to get the kids all settled in for the story, stretched out on the ground – Lily and Al both tucked under an arm, Jay cuddling in close. Finally, Teddy made his choice and stretched out next to Harry.

"Oooh, I like this one!" both Jay and Al said immediately, as Harry rolled his eyes. It figured. It figured that his kids would love _The Tale of the Three Brothers_ more than any other story, when that story, in fact, was closer to home than they would ever know.

"Do all the voices, Daddy," Jay said eagerly.

"And do it properly," Al added.

Sighing, Harry smiled and then began to read. "'There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight –'"

"MIDNIGHT!" came four voices immediately, three outraged little boys and an exasperated call from Ginny in the kitchen.

"Well, it says 'twilight' right there," Harry said with a stifled laugh. "Doesn't it, Teddy?"

"Well, yeah," Teddy admitted, "but I like better at midnight. It's spookier."

"Daddy, _go_," Lily complained, tugging at his sleeve.

Harry shook his head and continued. "'In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts...'"


	14. His Little Girl

**Chapter 13: His Little Girl**

"Daddy, Daddy, can't you _please_ tell me how it's done?" 11-year-old Victoire begged at dinner that night.

"I told you already," Bill laughed, exchanging an amused glance with Fleur. "There's a great river full of trials and tasks and then you have to do battle with a fierce magical object."

"I don't believe you, because Uncle Charlie's telling me all this rubbish about dragons, and Uncle George is talking about crystal balls, and Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron insist there's a mountain troll..."

Despite himself, Bill snorted. "Just because _they_ battled a mountain troll their first year," he muttered, and Victoire let out a shriek.

"You mean there _is_ a mountain troll?"

"Victoire, _chérie_, I am certain zat zer eez no mountain troll in zee Sorting," Victoire laughed. "Your uncles, zey are simply playing weeth your mind as usual."

* * *

"Ow!" 12-year-old Teddy let out a wounded yell as Ginny met up with Bill and Fleur outside the entrance to Platform 9 ¾: Victoire had hit him in the shoulder hard.

"It's a manky old hat!" she shrieked. "And you've been telling tales about dragons and trolls and..." The two of them were fighting their way right through the barrier.

"You told her?" Ginny asked Bill in disappointment. "You're not supposed to tell her!"

"No, _they_ overheard me telling Fleur and ran to tell her!" Bill said indignantly, pointing to 8-year-old Nikki and 7-year-old Louis as they took after the older two, 6-year-old Jay and 4-year-old Al in quick pursuit.

"Lily, no, wait, sweetheart," Ginny said, tightening her hold on her 2-year-old's hand as she strained to get at the barrier. "You're going to go at it the wrong way and you're going to smash right into those bricks and break your nose and then all these people are going to look at me like I'm a terrible mother."

* * *

"Daddy, Teddy won't let me go on with him!" Victoire complained, stamping her foot.

"Well, Victoire, darling, you have to find your own friends," Bill laughed, kissing her cheek as he hugged her one last time. "You can't leech off Teddy: after all, he _is_ a great and glorious second-year. Have a good term, sweetheart."

* * *

And as the train pulled out, Bill could almost feel the tiniest piece of his heart go with it.

Had it honestly been eleven years? Had his darling little princess, his precious Victoire really just left to go to Hogwarts?

It seemed like only yesterday that she had been a little girl dashing around the house, giggling as she begged him to play with her. _"Daddy, come swimming with me!" "Daddy, read me a story!" "Daddy, can I cuddle with you?"_

Victoire had been the joy of his life in those first years, when times had been hard to get through and both he and Fleur had wondered at times if coming back to England had been the best thing to do. Wondered if they shouldn't have stayed in France, where the economy was stable, where they'd had good-paying, steady jobs which paid them enough to afford a decent flat and probably a nice house in the future.

She had been his blond little angel, always eager to greet him when he came home from work with a laugh, a hug and a kiss, happily chattering to him about her day and about the newest offences committed by the terrible Teddy.

For a while, he'd envied Harry. He'd envied the chance his sister's husband had had, to be able to stay home and catch all those little moments. But he'd also seen the frustration in Harry's eyes, when they'd been out of money once again because Ginny had been hurt during a match and hospitalized, and Teddy needed new clothes because he'd grown past the point of stretching the old ones, and the cottage needed repairs done once again. Those were the times he didn't envy Harry his 'domesticated-househusband' status, as Ginny affectionately called him: he may not have been getting great pay at the bank, but it was something, and a right sight more than Ginny was getting paid by the Harpies – the 'expendable' positions like the entertainment industry, the restaurant industry, the hospitality industry... all those jobs were drastically lesser-paid than government and bank and retail. And when the economy kept coming and going in those first few years, when Kingsley and he would discover another major flaw in the system, they'd have to pull the currency again and start from scratch.

Victoire, of course, didn't care about that. All she cared about was that Daddy read her her story at night, Maman tucked her into bed and that that Teddy left her well enough alone.

* * *

"Daddy?" came Louis' questioning voice in his ear. "Daddy, are you going to sit here until Christmas?"

"Maybe," Bill replied with a sigh.

"You're going to get awful bored, Daddy. It doesn't make the train come any faster, you know, if you sit here waiting for it."


	15. A Reluctant Sort of Camaraderie

**Chapter 14: A Reluctant Sort of Camaraderie**

**(Or, Victoire Starts Hogwarts)**

Victoire sighed with impatience as she checked yet another compartment to find it full. Really, how _could_ Teddy be this rude?

"Hey, are you looking for a compartment still as well?" came the question of one blond girl in front of her, as she turned around.

"Well, I suppose that I'm going to have to go back and tell Teddy that I have to split his compartment with him," Victoire grumbled. "Him and his great and glorious second-year friends..."

"Can I come with you, then?" the girl asked. "I'm Ella, by the way, Ella Neufeld. I'm just starting this year."

"Victoire," Victoire replied with a slight smile. "Victoire Weasley."

"So you've already got a brother here, or...?"

"Oh, no, Teddy's my uncle's godson. He's a bit of a prat. Teddy, not Uncle Harry."

"Wait, you said Weasley?" Ella asked interestedly. "But your whole family's got the Order of Merlin, First Class! Your family's _famous_!"

"Yeah, isn't it?" Victoire sighed. "They're really not as interesting as legend makes them out to be, in all honesty." She walked back down the hall with Ella in quick pursuit, pushing open the door to the back compartment where she'd left Teddy and his two friends minutes ago. "Teddy, all the compartments are full, we're sitting here."

She noticed one of the other Gryffindor girls had joined them, sitting next to Teddy with a rather lovestruck look in her eyes. Victoire was surprised to feel a flicker of jealousy somewhere inside – she supposed it was because she was so used to being the only girl around his age, she'd forgotten that girls also went to Hogwarts. Squashing the jealousy firmly, she dropped into a seat next to one of Teddy's friends. "We won't bother you, will we, Ella?"

"No, I suppose not," Ella admitted.

"Morgandy, get out of the way," Teddy said irritably to the Gryffindor girl, and Victoire felt an inexplicable delight at the irritation in his voice. "Vic, c'mere a second, take a look at this."

Casting a momentary smile of triumph at the rebuffed older girl, who sniffed in disgust and left the compartment, Victoire crossed over and took her spot, leaning forward to see what Teddy had pulled out from his bag.

It was an old piece of parchment, ratty in some places and stained in others.

"It's parchment. It's just an old parchment, Teddy," Victoire said with a frown.

"Well, it can't be just an old parchment," Teddy said. "Harry's just sent it. Look what happens when you try and write on it." He took out his quill and ink and tried to put the quill to parchment. An invisible barrier seemed to stop him.

"Reveal your secrets," Victoire said, tapping it with her wand.

_

* * *

_

We will reveal no secrets without the proper password, silly little girl.

* * *

"Well, they got one bit right," Teddy snickered momentarily, then let out a wounded yelp when Victoire punched him in the shoulder. "Here, you're not doing it properly," he said. Touching his own wand to the parchment, he said in as authoritative a voice as a 12-year-old could muster, "Ted Lupin, master of the universe, demands that you reveal yourselves!"

"Master of the universe?" one of his friends snickered.

"Like that's going to work," the other laughed.

_

* * *

_

Messr Padfoot would like to send his greeting to the brave little Lupin, and tell him to come back when he's older.

_Messr Prongs would like to commend the funny little Lupin on his valiant attempts to gain access, but suggests that he find out how it works first._

_Messr Wormtail would like to note that the little boy is cute but hopelessly clueless._

_Messr Moony would like to know how the mysterious young Lupin came to be in possession of this parchment, considering that Messrs Prongs and Padfoot got it confiscated._

_Messrs Prongs and Padfoot would like to put forth that that was not their fault but the fault of a greasy little Slytherin._

_Messr Moony would like remind them that he doesn't care, they still got it confiscated._

_Messr Prongs would like to remind Messr Moony that he has mucked up far worse in their lifetime._

_Messr Moony denies this blatant lie._

_Messr Wormtail is staying out of this._

_Messr Padfoot thinks that is smart of Messr Wormtail, and would like to say that both Messrs Moony and Prongs are complete idiots at this time._

* * *

"Oh, this is funny, let's just watch this for the rest of the trip," one of Teddy's friends snickered, as the four mysterious writers continue to bicker on the parchment.

Victoire and Teddy, meanwhile, were staring at the parchment in shock.

"No way..." Victoire whispered, as Teddy touched his wand to the parchment again, his hand shaking slightly.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered, watching as the words faded away except for a brief _Good job!_ from the writing associated to Messr Moony. "Oh, my goodness..."

"Harry's sent you the Marauders' Map!" Victoire said, eyes wide.

* * *

"See you at the feast!" Marcus and Jesse both called to Victoire and Ella as they disembarked at Hogsmeade Station.

"Don't fall into the lake, or the Kelpies will get you!" Teddy called teasingly, grinning and dodging the sparks Victoire shot at him furiously.

"Lupin, yeh oughta know better than to mess with her head like that!" Hagrid roared after him, though with affection. "There isn't a single Kelpie in that lake, girls, don't you pay a speck of attention to him. He likes a laugh, that one."

* * *

Victoire almost wished that they had chairs to sit down in, because the Hat was singing for a rather long time. She and Ella both cast excited, nervous glances at one another as McGonagall advanced and unfurled her parchment.

"Adams, Ryan!"

It seemed to Victoire like that Hat was purposely dragging it out, taking its time with each and every student. By the time it had finally gotten to Ella's name, she'd stopped paying attention. But she heard the Hat call vaguely, "Ravenclaw!" The sorting continued to drag along until at long last, Victoire was the last one left standing in the aisle.

"And, Weasley, Victoire," McGonagall said with a smile.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

* * *

"Listen, just because you're in my house, and I let you sit with me on the train, doesn't mean you get to tag along with me everywhere," Teddy said sternly as she came to sit with him and his friends in the common room, where they were scouring the Marauders' Map.

"I know," she replied cheerfully, an inexplicable sense of triumph when she saw Morgandy advance and then stop at the sight of her. "So what are you watching?"

"Look at Neville, down there," Teddy said, pointing to the Herbology professor's office. "See who he's with?"

"Hannah Abbott?" Victoire said in surprise. "What's she doing all the way down here?"

"I dunno, but they're looking rather cozy, aren't they?" Teddy asked with a grin.

"You're terrible!" Victoire exclaimed.

Teddy just grinned again at her, eyes sparkling. "I'm a Marauder."

* * *

"You know he's not yours, right?" came the hiss of Morgandy in her ear, the first day back after Christmas break. It had been another happily crazy Christmas dinner at the Burrow, involving another fight between her and Teddy that he'd apparently forgotten by the time the train had pulled into Platform 9 ¾.

It was sort of silly, in a way... the way he'd spent the first month trying to get rid of her, and then seemed to have given up, letting Victoire and Ella into the little circle.

Victoire turned around. "I'm sorry?" she asked, setting down her quill.

"Teddy! He's not yours!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Morgandy." Victoire sat back in her chair, keeping her voice low: Madam Pinch was looking rather fiercely in their direction. "Teddy's a person. Not a pet. He doesn't belong to anybody. I should think that _you_ would get the hint, though, when he keeps telling you to bugger off."

"Oh, don't you try to be all innocent with me," Morgandy snapped, flames crackling in her eyes. "You think I don't see how he makes sure you're always the one sitting next to him at the table? He always has you around."

"Teddy is a friend, Morgandy. Our families spend a lot of time together," Victoire said reasonably.

"Just don't get in my way," Morgandy said darkly.

_

* * *

_

May 2, 2011

"Happy birthday, Victoire," Teddy said cheerfully, popping up beside her at the Gryffindor table early that morning, already dressed in his best school robes. "Thought I ought to tell you that first thing in the morning, before the Remembrance Day stuff starts. You got a rot birthday, you know. Any way, here you are." He dropped a small, wrapped present onto the table in front of her. "And no, I didn't sneak out to Hogsmeade to get it."

"Thank you, Teddy, but I think I'll wait until after the ceremony to open it," Victoire replied, smiling at him as she slid the box into her pocket. "Are we sitting with the school today, you think?"

"Suppose we're supposed to," Teddy said thoughtfully, sliding onto the bench and grabbing some slices of toast. "I did last year, but Harry and Ginny weren't there."

"Yeah, the kids all had chicken pox that week, I remember because they gave it to Louis," Victoire said with a laugh. "Where's Marcus and Jesse?"

"Well, I expect they're both still sleeping, as it's only 6:30," Teddy replied.

"What are you doing up so early, then?" Victoire asked. "I got up early just to have a bit of alone time, you know? Most of the kids here don't get it, what today was. I heard Kevin March-Rainer complaining the other day about having to lose three hours of a perfectly good weekend morning to sit and listen to old people babble on about a stupid old battle."

"Oh, was he the one you hexed?" Teddy asked. Victoire nodded.

"Why are you up so early again?" she asked again.

"Oh, yeah, I was going to just... yeah," Teddy said, suddenly very interested in his jam-spreading. "No particular reason, just thought I'd..." He looked up and muttered, "Fine, I was going to go down to the memorial for a bit before all the people arrive. You won't tell Harry and Ginny, right? Harry doesn't think it's healthy, what I'm doing. But I only do it once a year..."

"Your secret's safe with me, Teddy."

* * *

"I can't believe we have sit through this, don't you?" Morgandy was whining loudly to her friends as the rest of the students began trickling into the Great Hall at about 8:30, most of them dressed in weekend wear, a few who had remembered that today was Remembrance Day in school robes, albeit rumpled robes with ties undone and shirts untucked.

It drove her crazy, it drove her just as crazy as it did Teddy, to see how little respect was being shown. Didn't they realize people had _died_ so that they could come here? That whole families had been killed in the Dark War? That people had been wounded beyond the repairs of a Healer? Her father had been mauled by a werewolf, Uncle George had lost an ear and a twin, Uncle Harry had lost his entire family and had 'too many scars to name' thanks to the Death-Eaters! Teddy had lost his parents!

Teddy, speak of the devil, was still down by the memorial, out of sight of the students walking past and Victoire, sitting on the edge of one of the stone railings, wondered if she shouldn't go and fetch him now. He'd been there for two hours, and Uncle Harry was right, it wasn't healthy for him, to sit there with his hands on the plaques, trying to pretend like it hadn't happened.

"Where's Teddy?" Jesse asked, leaning on the railing next to her with Marcus right beside him. Ella came up to her other side. She was relieved to see that all three had taken great care to make sure that their appearances were perfect. It would make Teddy less angry when she pulled him away.

"At the memorial," Victoire replied quietly. "Been there since 6:30."

"Reckon it's time to pull him away?" Marcus asked softly. "Professor Longbottom had to pull him away at 9:45 last year, just as everybody was arriving."

"Yeah, yeah, it probably is," Victoire said, jumping down from the railing. "Coming with me?"

* * *

"Teddy, Teddy, no, don't go back," Victoire said softly as the ceremony was ending and most of the students were heading back to the school to change and have the rest of the day off. "You were there for two hours this morning. Come back to the school with us."

"You go ahead, I'll be right there," Teddy replied quietly, drifting towards the memorial again.

"Teddy, no," Jesse said, catching his arm. "C'mon, come back to the common room with us. Victoire's got to open her presents."

"I said I'd be right there," Teddy repeated, trying to tug his arm away from Jesse. "I just... it's only once a year..."

"Teddy, you've already spent two hours here," Marcus said. "Enough is enough. It's not going to do any good to sit there for two more hours." And between the three young Gryffindors and the one young Ravenclaw, they managed to prod him back up to the castle.

* * *

The first- and second-years conversation hadn't slipped Harry's notice, as he sank to the ground behind the tomb, next to the plaques he knew now that his godson had spent two hours in front of this morning.

"I don't know what to do about it, Remus," he murmured softly. "I just don't know what to do. I can't stop him, and in some small way, I don't _want_ to stop him, but I know it isn't doing him any good. Neville said that last year, he was so quiet and withdrawn that the professors were worried about him for a week..."

* * *

Summertime came before anybody realized what was happening. Soon enough, it was time to pack their trunks and load onto the train for the trip back home for summer holidays.

"So you're at Cheswick for July this year, right?" Victoire asked along with Marcus and Jesse as the five friends boarded the train. Teddy nodded slightly, stashing his bag up on the rack with his trunk. "Ella, you're going to have to come to Haven Point this summer for a bit. And I suppose I'll see you at the Burrow, Teddy."

"There's no holidays or kids' birthdays in July," Teddy pointed out quietly.

"Yeah, but Nan's sure to have some sort of family 'do while you're at Cheswick, seeing as you won't be there for the pre-Hogwarts dinner."

"I guess," Teddy sighed.

"You don't sound very enthused about this, Teddy," Victoire said, looking at him worriedly.

"I dunno," Teddy sighed again. "I guess I just don't like this arrangement very much. I liked it better when I always lived with Harry and Ginny."

"Well, it's only for a few years, isn't it?" Ella said reasonably. "Only until you're 17, and then you can do what you want. Personally, I think it's nice that your grandmum and your godfather worked it out. My parents are still yanking me back and forth, I never know _where_ I'm going. I don't even know who's picking me up at King's Cross. I'm quite expecting them not to be there one day..."


	16. The Joy of Each Other

A/N: For Ste93, who wanted more Ron/Hermione.

**

* * *

**

Chapter 15: The Joy of Each Other

_If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth._

_(Mitsugi Saotome)_

_July 15, 2011_

"Rosie, please don't jump on Daddy like that, that's my sore bit," Ron said patiently as he pried his little girl off of his leg. "Uncle George's experiments went a little awry today."

"Daddy, could we play outside for a while when we get home?" 5-year-old Rose begged, pulling at his trouser leg hopefully. "Please, Daddy?"

"Daddy!" 3-year-old Hugo shrieked excitedly, dashing out from the kitchen of the Granger house. "Daddy, you're home!"

"Hey, sport!" Ron greeted with a grin, swinging Hugo up into the air.

"Is Hermione not back yet?" asked Darren Granger as he came out from the kitchen.

"No, not yet," Ron said, looking over at his father-in-law. "Didn't answer my owl at midday either, so she must be pulling overtime. How were they today?"

"Oh, angels as usual," laughed Julie from the sitting room. "Did you want to stay for dinner, then, Ron? We wouldn't mind having you over."

"Well, guys?" Ron asked his kids, who both nodded enthusiastically. "All right, then, I guess we are staying. Thanks."

* * *

Hermione's parents seemed to be more eager than usual to have company that night, so Ron obliged their requests to stay after dinner. It became obvious not long after that why they wanted company that night, when their voices began to become accented with an Australian twinge and they were occasionally referring to themselves as Wendell and Monica. Though it had been 14 years to the day since Hermione had bewitched them to keep them safe, and over 13 years since their memories had been restored, their minds always seemed to be a little on the scrambled side at this time of the year.

"Well, Daddy, shouldn't we go home?" Rose asked with a yawn, climbing up onto the couch beside Ron. "It's almost bedtime, isn't it?"

"I'm not sleepy!" Hugo exclaimed drowsily from Ron's other side, his head resting against Ron's arm.

Julie looked at the clock and exclaimed in surprise, "Goodness, look at the time, it's nearly 11! Gracious, Ron, I'm sorry to have kept you, of course you three should head home. Rosie's quite right, it's long past bedtime!"

* * *

"Where were you?" Hermione demanded shrilly as Ron ushered a sleepy Rose into the house ahead of him, already carting Hugo's dead weight in his arms. "I've been worried sick for _hours_, imagining the worst, it's full moon and Greyback's lot is still at large..."

"It didn't occur to you to check at your parents' place?" Ron snapped at her. "They asked us to stay for dinner, I thought you were working overtime."

"I was! It's damn near midnight, Ronald!" Hermione snapped back, scooping up Rose. Without further words, the two of them went their separate ways to put the children in bed.

* * *

Ron spent the night tossing and turning on the couch, and awoke Saturday morning to the sounds of Rose and Hugo giggling and fighting to be the first one to wake him.

"Daddy, wake up now!" Hugo laughed, climbing up onto the couch.

"Yeah, Daddy, we're going to Nan and Granddad's today," Rose agreed.

"Ronald, get up, I told your mother that we'd be there in time for lunch," Hermione said.

"Well, we got time," Ron yawned blearily as he sat up, catching Hugo before he fell. "'Sonly what, 9?"

"Try 11:30," Hermione corrected tersely. "Since _somebody _kept the children up until midnight, they didn't wake until 11."

* * *

By the time they had managed to get themselves to the Burrow, everybody else seemed to have arrived and the lunch had started outside on the old battered picnic tables.

"Oh, Ron, Hermione, good!" Molly exclaimed, bustling over to give everybody a hug and kiss. "Rosie, Hugo, sweets, go on and sit down. I hope you're hungry. Ginny's sent word they'll be a little late, apparently Harry's only just gotten back from work this morning and Teddy's had that werewolf friend of his over, so she wanted to be sure he was all right and back safely to his grandparents before they came."

"I'm sorry we're late, Mum, the kids and I had a bit of a late night at Hermione's parents yesterday," Ron apologized, sliding onto the bench next to Percy. "Hey, Perce."

"Oh, that's perfectly all right, Ron, dear," Molly replied, returning to her seat.

"Marcus was up at Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny's last night?" Victoire asked.

* * *

Hermione still hadn't spoken a word to him since they'd arrived, just like it had been for so often these days. There were days that he wondered what sort of hallucinogenic drug he had been on, to ask her to marry him. There were moments that he wondered if they weren't still together only because of the kids. There were moments, brief moments, that he wondered if they weren't splitting apart because of the kids.

Before, it had been good. For those first years of marriage, they had gotten along splendidly – every morning, they had kissed each other goodbye as they'd headed to their jobs, and every night had been filled with the sort of passion that could only be afforded by two young souls in love. And then Rose had come along, and suddenly there was more than one person to consider, a whole new world of responsibilities. The baby had to be fed in the mornings, and rocked to sleep at night. She needed to be held and cuddled and kissed constantly, she needed to be changed. The passion had flickered away slowly as they found their time slipping away into the black hole known as 'parenthood'.

They had two completely different theories on how to best raise the children. Hermione was strict, regimented, desperate to cling to the rules and panicked when they so much as reddened a patch of skin; Ron figured a few bumps and bruises would do them more good than harm, and so long as it didn't require a trip to St Mungo's, anything went.

* * *

It figured that the great and perfect Harry Potter would've figured out the tricks and not told Ron, he thought grouchily as he watched Harry and Ginny from the corner of his eye, playing with Hugo on the grass outside. There was twice the amount of kids in his house – hell, with the mischief that lot got into, probably seemed like eight children instead of four!

And yet there they were, 12 years into it, and still Ginny was cuddling up next to him like she was 18 again, and still Harry would whisper into her ear with light kisses to her hairline as though there wasn't a very insistent 3-year-old girl climbing into Harry's lap with demands for attention. How the hell did he do it?

* * *

"What's eating at you, mate?" Harry asked softly as the sun began to set, with a drowsy Lily snuggled into his arms. "You've been a bit quiet all day."

Ron sighed, lifting Hugo back up when his son whined and pleaded sleepily. "Nothing, I suppose. Just... thoughts."

"Give you a pound for them," Harry offered.

"I dunno..." Ron said, as Hugo wrapped his arms around his neck. "Just seems like Hermione and I do nothing but argue anymore. Like last night. She was working overtime and her parents asked us to stay for dinner and chat. Not a problem, I said, Hermione's at the Ministry late tonight. So we did stay a little later than we probably should've, got home about 11, and she's yelling at me! Like it never occurred to her to check at her parents' place!"

"Maybe it didn't," Harry offered.

"Oi, whose side are you on, any way?" Ron asked defensively. "How the hell do you and Ginny do it, Harry? I don't get how you survive 12 years of marriage and four kids. Merlin, I mean, you guys _started _it all off with one!"

"Has it really been that long?" Harry mused momentarily. "Merlin, I feel old... Any way, Ron, I think you're reading too much into this. I mean, Merlin, if you think Ginny and I don't have rows like that, you're an idiot."

Ron sighed. "But it still seems like you and she... I dunno, like you still just came back from the honeymoon, you know? Like you don't have kids."

"Listen, Ron, don't expect you and Hermione to work the same way as Ginny and I," Harry said quietly. "It's two completely separate dynamics. The two of you have both always had a family. You haven't learned to completely appreciate the joy of it. After losing my parents, after living with the Dursleys, after losing Sirius and Remus and Tonks..." Harry trailed off momentarily, a slight tremble in his voice. Then he cleared his throat uncomfortably and continued, cuddling Lily closely. "After all that, I will never, _ever_ take that for granted. Ginny learned the hard way that she never took precedence over Teddy, and for a while, I think she had the same problem as you. Not that I think she'd ever admit to it..."

Ron shifted Hugo to the other hip, casting a glance back at Hermione, who was busy cajoling Rose back into consciousness. "Mate, just tell me what to do to make her like me again."

"You have to come up with it yourself, Ron," Harry said. "Just keep in mind that the only reason you have all that you do is thanks to her."

* * *

He could see her sitting out on the back porch in the swing, drifting slowly back and forth as she watched the stars twinkling away in the sky. "'Mione," he said softly.

"What do you want, Ronald?" she asked tersely.

"I was wondering if we could try work out this problem we seem to have..." Ron replied, sitting down next to her. "Listen, I'm sorry about what happened last night... but honestly, Hermione, I feel like we're constantly at each other's throats for the stupidest things, and I hate it."

"So you've noticed," Hermione said coldly, arms crossed protectively in front of her.

"Noticed?" Ron burst out. "How can I not notice, I've slept on the damn couch for the last month! You really are the most difficult person to live with!"

"Excuse me?!" Hermione shrieked indignantly. "You're no joy yourself!"

"Why are we doing this?" Ron demanded.

"I don't know!"

"Good! Neither do I!"

"Then why are we fighting?"

"That's what I'd like to know!"

They fell silent for a moment. Then Ron sighed and dropped down to the seat next to Hermione. "Are we just doomed to fight for the rest of our lives?"

"I hope not," Hermione sighed in response. "That would be awful. I do so like it when we're not mad at each other."

Ron sent a slight smile at her. "So do I."

Hermione sighed again and returned her gaze to the starry sky. "Do you remember our first night here?" she asked softly.

"In great detail," Ron replied.

"We were so young... so happy, remember?" she said wistfully. "We thought there was nothing in the world that we couldn't get through..."

* * *

The sounds of the children waking with the sunrise greeted their ears the next morning.

"I hate mornings," Ron groaned, just as Hermione leaned over to kiss him and whisper into his ear,

"I missed you."


	17. Of Umbridge, Edsvale and Tattoos

**Chapter 16: Of Umbridge, Edsvale and Tattoos**

"So how long, you figure, before Morgandy Hallows comes bursting in?" 15-year-old Jesse asked with a grin as he stretched out in the increasingly cramped compartment.

"Aw, I give it another half-hour," Marcus laughed, his face still sporting scratches from the previous week's full moon. "She has to find him first."

"Good luck finding a spot in here," 14-year-old Ella said, gesturing to the full compartment. Being the ever-nice older sister, Victoire had consented to having Nikki ride along with them.

"Oh, she'll find a way," Teddy laughed wryly, stretching his arm across the back of Victoire's seat. "She always does. So, Nikki, feeling nervous?" he asked with a grin, looking down the row at her.

"About what?" 11-year-old Nikki asked defiantly. "About being sorted by a manky old hat? You can't play _that_ game with me, I know how it's done!"

"You know you've wrecked the fun for the rest of 'em, right?" Teddy said.

"You know Dad's going to kill you when he finds out you're within eight inches of Victoire, right?" Nikki threw back.

"Oh-ho!" Marcus said. "This girl knows how to play!"

* * *

"See you in the morning," Marcus sighed as he got up from his chair in the common room and headed for the hospital wing.

"Poor bloke," Jesse said sympathetically as the group watched him leave. "It's too bad they can't find a permanent solution." He pushed away his Defence homework.

"Well, Bran Edsvale, you know, one of the Gryffindor girls in my year?" Victoire spoke up. "Her dad's been working on an antidote for, like, fifteen years, and she says he thinks he may have gotten it this time."

"That'd be great, you know, if he did," Teddy said, twitching the Marauders' Map slightly to keep an eye on the little dot marked _Marcus Dylan_ traveling with _Poppy Pomfrey_ down the hallways and out into the grounds. "But would it actually heal this long after the bite? I mean, it's one thing when it's just after, when they haven't really gotten it all through their system yet, but 11 years?"

"Well, he'd been testing on older werewolves, Bran said," Victoire replied.

* * *

"Ten points from Gryffindor! Ten points from Slytherin!" Professor Vervaine, the Charms professor, howled as he threw a shield between Teddy and Rosier. "If you boys cannot keep cool heads in my classroom..."

"Half-breeds and Mudbloods," Sagittarius Yaxley spat contemptuously as Rosier dropped back into his seat sullenly, still shooting dark glares at Teddy. "Madam Umbridge has the right idea about what to do with your lot."

"Yaxley, watch your mouth!" Vervaine said sharply. "Lupin, wand _away_!" he added warningly, as Teddy yanked his wand out again.

"That bitch Umbridge has fallen from grace, remember?" Teddy snarled back at Yaxley.

"Falls can be reversed, half-breed," Rosier said with a sneer.

"Not while my godfather's Head of the Aurors Office, peabrain," Teddy sneered back. "Merlin, even trolls are smarter than you."

"Rate that search for Greyback's going, he's not going to _be_ Head for much longer, eh, Hayden?" Yaxley said casually.

"Yeah, heard another kid got slaughtered last full moon. How old was this one, two?"

"Families aren't going to take kindly to that, especially once they find out there's a couple inside Hogwarts' walls."

"Enough, Yaxley and Rosier!" Vervaine yelled. "Detention for both of you, a fortnight's worth."

"I daresay once Madam Umbridge takes over that shambles Potter calls the Aurors Office, she'll have something to say about the sympathizers as well..." Rosier muttered, casting a victorious smirk in Teddy, Marcus and Jesse's direction.

"_MISTER ROSIER, DO YOU WANT A SUSPENSION?!_"

* * *

"Don't pay any mind to them, guys," Kryton muttered to the others as the Gryffindors began heading for the Great Hall. "You know they're both just saying things, Umbridge would never get away with any of that spew she keeps coming out with, she's completely crackers, my parents say so themselves and they actually bought into it when she first started during the war..."

Marcus was chewing at his lower lip, unconvinced. Teddy's eyes were still spitting fire, his hand compulsively clutching his wand every time he saw a flash of green pass or a head of dark hair appear amongst the students. Jesse seemed to be thoroughly confused, eyes flicking back and forth between his friends.

"Guys, guys, come to the common room, you've got to hear this!" Victoire called desperately, pushing her way through the students to grab Teddy's arm and pull. Ella appeared moments later. "I don't believe this is actually broadcasting..."

* * *

They gained a number of strange looks, the huddle of students (not all of them from Gryffindor) around the radio in the Gryffindor common room: Teddy, Marcus, Jesse, Kryton, Victoire, Ella, Nikki and Nikki's two friends, Madyson Proudfoot and Kelly Graziano. Six Gryffindors, two Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff.

_"In past decades, things of this nature have usually been vehemently denied comment from the part of the Ministry. It's proof of the changes made, therefore, that Minister Shacklebolt and Head Auror Potter have released a statement concerning the charges, accusations and general badmouthing from one Dolores Umbridge."_

The students all glanced at each other worriedly: had Yaxley and Rosier actually spoken truth for once?

"Oh, there's Kingsley," Victoire said in relief as Kingsley's deep, calming voice came over the radio waves.

"I love that you're on first-name basis with the Minister for Magic," Ella laughed.

"Well, he's not the Minister, he's... Kingsley," Teddy, Victoire and Nikki all said, just as Marcus and Jesse shushed them.

_"It is not my intention to conduct myself in a manner unbefitting to a civilized individual, therefore I will not be making return accusations to the statements given by Madam Umbridge as to the integrity of this government and its workers. I will instead give reassurances to the wizarding world that our Aurors have been working tirelessly, as have numerous other workers within the departments of Magical Law Enforcement, to capture the individuals to whom the savage murders of Christiana Henley, Eli Jamison, Cadmus Argue, Zinnia Finch and Laurel Langford have been attributed..."_

"I'll say," Teddy said indignantly in unison with Madyson. "Didn't we only see Harry all of two hours this summer?" he continued contemptuously.

"Dad's been at the Ministry nearly 24/7 for the last three months!" Madyson exclaimed.

"That's so Kingsley of him, though, not to point out what a megalomaniac Umbridge is," Victoire commented as the radio broadcaster came back on, rambling a little more.

"Hey, wait, she's saying something about Uncle Harry!" Nikki exclaimed.

_"Out of all the people accused of perpetuating this scheme, Head Auror Harry Potter has doubtlessly been the worst-abused by Dolores Umbridge. Potter – the guardian of the son of known werewolf spy Remus Lupin, who is also known to be a close companion of student werewolf Marcus Dylan, brother-in-law to part-werewolf Bill Weasley and one of the most outspoken advocates of the Integration Act, not to mention an old enemy of Umbridge from her brief stint as High Inquisitor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1995-1996 school year – has been accused of letting dangerous werewolves slide off in the name of beings' rights..."_

"Oi!" Teddy, Marcus, Victoire and Nikki all roared.

"Enough about him, he's _dead_, isn't he?" Teddy howled at the radio. "Let a man rest in peace, you make him sound like he was damn chums with Greyback!"

"Where'd they get off saying that on live broadcast?!" Victoire shrieked. "_Naming_ people?! Merlin, you wouldn't even know Dad got savaged if he didn't have the damn scars!"

"That's not supposed to _be_ public knowledge, damn it!" Marcus yelled. "Bad enough half the school knows, innit?"

Harry's voice came over the radio, a thin veneer of calmness and steadiness barely masking the anger and outrage.

_"We're reassuring the public at this time that these murders aren't being taken lightly. Those individuals responsible will pay for their crimes with their lives, as laid out in the Provisioning of Justice for Dangerous Beings."_

"Can almost see his eyebrow going, can't you?" Teddy muttered. "Twitch-twitch-twitch..."

_"As to the insinuations made by Umbridge, I have made it a point not to stoop down to such a level as name-calling and desperate, blatant lies. However, certain circumstances allow for no other course of action – in short, I'm not quite as politically-correct as Minister Shacklebolt. Dolores Umbridge is nothing but a two-faced, vicious, lying pureblood-supremacist bitch. Her words will hold no power on any action made by the Aurors Office and Umbridge should know damn well how thin the ice she treads on is. Her statements and actions border hate crime as defined, by the Post-War Legislation of 1999, as 'any statement, action or intent of action directed against a blood status, cultural group, human or non-human status, etcetera, in name of defining superiority of oneself or one's status'..."_

"Hate to see what he's going to do to her when she finally crosses the line," Nikki muttered as the broadcaster cut Harry off to continue onto other news. "Umbridge's name is equal to 'dirty, rotten scoundrel' and loads of other nasty things in our family," she explained to Kelly and Madyson.

"I wouldn't cry to see her hang, she made my parents' lives hell," Teddy commented bitterly. "C'mon, let's go back and have lunch."

_

* * *

_

March 17, 2014:

"Marcus, look at this!" Ella shrieked excitedly, dashing over to the Gryffindor table with the _Daily Prophet_ clutched in her hand. "Marcus! Marcus!"

"What?" Marcus asked peevishly, still holding his bandage against the slash on his temple. "Damn it, Ella, it's the morning after damn full moon."

"And you're never going to have to go through it again, Marcus, _look_!" Ella exclaimed, slamming the paper down on the Gryffindor table in front of him.

_

* * *

_

LONDON RESEARCHER UNVEILS ANTIDOTE TO LYCANTHROPY

_David Edsvale, 46, freelance researcher and potioneer in London, released to the public today a tested antidote to the curse of lycanthropy, that is to say, the status of being a werewolf. Vetted by St Mungo's at exactly 6:05 AM, following the three-month observation period of the test group, the potion, now christened the Edsvale Potion, will be distributed immediately to all names on the Werewolf Registry._

_The Edsvale Potion, unlike its predecessor the Wolfsbane Potion, truly reverses the effect of the bite on the afflicted person, rather than allow the presence of the human mind in wolfish form..._

* * *

The group all stared at that article for exactly two minutes before Teddy let out a whoop of excitement. "Marcus, they've done it!" he roared happily, slinging an arm around his friend's neck.

"They've really made one," Marcus said, dumbfounded. "It really works. I-I-I can be cured..."

* * *

"Oh, God, that stuff was awful..." Marcus groaned two nights later as he practically crawled back into their dorm room, face white with a greenish tinge to it. "Far worse than Wolfsbane... oh, God, I think I'm going to die..." He pulled himself up onto his bed without further comment and lay there motionless, moaning.

"Think of it this way, Marcus, you never have to take it again," Teddy called from his own bed, where he was examining a scrap of parchment with an elaborate drawing of a phoenix in its blazing glory. He had his sleep pants and a sleeveless shirt on, his right arm being carefully sanitized and scrutinized by Jesse.

"Guys, you really sure you want to do that?" Kryton asked warily, watching from across the room. "I mean, it's sort of dangerous, yeah?"

"Aw, he knows what he's doing," Teddy said dismissively.

"I've been practicing on non-living beings, and it's worked fine," Jesse added. "You want it all done tonight, Teddy?"

"You're going to poke me with needles, you're going to be doing them all at once, yeah. I don't care how long it takes."

"Jesse, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"What's going on?" Marcus asked blearily, turning over slowly just in time to see Jesse begin the first details. "Oh, God, Jesse, are you _actually_ tattooing him?"

"Yeah," Teddy replied, tossing the parchment at Marcus. He took one look at it and moaned,

"We are going to get in _so_ much trouble..."

* * *

There was a sort of awed silence in the boys' dorm room as the sounds of the other students all heading down for breakfast echoed outside.

"Jesse, that's amazing," Kryton breathed, as Teddy gleefully examined the finished product.

The phoenix seemed almost real, a photograph on skin. Its long, flaming tail wound lazily down to his elbow, its head thrown back in a screech of battle up towards his shoulder.

"Jesse, you're the best," Teddy said, pulling on his school robes.

"We are going to get in so much trouble..." Marcus groaned again as he dragged his robes over his head. "I feel too damn sick to berate you. Can I just have my Wolfsbane back?"

_

* * *

_

March 21, 2014:

"See you in a week!" Teddy called back to Marcus and Jesse as they disembarked.

"Yeah, Happy Easter!"

"Teddy's back! Teddy's back!" came the happy shrieks of 5-year-old Lily.

* * *

"Teddy, will you play Exploding Snape with me?" Lily asked eagerly as she burst into his old bedroom, which he had long since permitted Ginny to use as an office for her writing. "Teddy, what's on your arm?"

"Nothing, Lee, and it's Exploding Snap. I'll play after dinner, all right?" Teddy said, quickly spelling the sleeves of his t-shirt to lengthen in order to hide the tattoo. Oh, Ginny would kill him if she found out... to say nothing of what Grandmum would do...

"Yeah, you had something there," Lily insisted, jumping up onto his bed and pulling at his sleeve. She gasped and shrieked, "Mummy – " just before Teddy's hand came against her mouth.

"You tell, you little fink, and I'll make sure Ginny finds out exactly who wrecked Nan's clock at Christmas," he hissed.

"You wouldn't!" Lily gasped as he released her mouth.

"Watch me," Teddy replied, just as Ginny appeared in the doorway.

"What's going on – TED REMUS LUPIN, WHAT IS ON YOUR ARM?"


	18. Dangerous Blood

**Chapter 17: Dangerous Blood**

_July 25, 2014:_

"Ow! Lee, stop that!" Teddy exclaimed, swatting his little godsister away.

"But Teddy, didn't you know it _moves_?" Lily asked gleefully, ducking his hand.

"Teddy! Teddy, you have Hogwarts mail!" Al yelled, running into the sitting room.

"Mum says she reckons it's your OWL results and make sure you call Mrs Tonks over here before you open it," Jay reported from the doorway.

Rolling his eyes, Teddy did as instructed, Andromeda arriving by Floo minutes later just when Ginny had emerged from the office.

"Yep, it's the OWLs."

"Oooh, don't keep an old woman in suspense, Teddy, my heart can't take it..." Andromeda moaned.

Teddy bit back the chuckle. "All right, Grandmum, all right." Clearing his throat, he began to read the paper out loud.

_

* * *

_

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVELS RESULTS

_Pass Grades: Outstanding (O),_ _Exceeds Expectations (E), Acceptable (A)_

_F__ail Grades: Poor (P), __Dreadful (D),__ Troll (T)_

* * *

"Oh, not that part, Teddy, you know we don't care about _that_ part," Ginny moaned, her face buried in her hands.

Laughing, Teddy returned to the paper and continued to read.

_

* * *

_

TED REMUS LUPIN HAS ACHIEVED:

_Arithmancy: E_

_Astronomy: E_

_Care of Magical Creatures: E_

_Charms: O_

_Defence Against the Dark Arts:O_

_Herbology: O_

_History of Magic: E_

_Potions: E_

_Transfiguration: O_

* * *

There were two simultaneous shrieks.

"Oh, that's my smart boy!" Andromeda exclaimed, hugging him tightly. "Nothing below an E, that's wonderful, darling!"

"Grandmum – Grandmum, breathing, kind of necessary..."

Happily, Andromeda kissed his cheek affectionately and then released him. "Oh, I'm all of aflutter."

Ginny was busy mouthing wordless prayers and thanks at the ceiling as Teddy folded the letter back up and kissed his grandmother goodbye again.

_

* * *

_

September 1, 2014:

"Yep. It's that Weasley season again," Professor Sinistra murmured softly to her colleagues as Professor McGonagall called,

"Weasley, Louis!"

* * *

"So we heard your step-godmother screaming at you clear down at our place at Easter, by the way," Marcus laughed as they began eating. "Forgot to mention that what with all the OWLs panic. What'd your godfather say?"

"Said it was the best bit of artwork he'd seen in a while," Teddy replied with a grin. "Says kudos to you, Jesse, he's impressed."

Jesse took a mock bow. "It will be my signature piece, and you, Ted Lupin, will be my billboard. I will be the most famous tattoo artist in the world."

Victoire laughed from beside Teddy. "Aunt Ginny's still not speaking to Uncle Harry. Says he ought to be more upset that his underage kid got tattooed in the middle of a dorm room by another another underage kid with no training whatsoever."

"I don't think she's quite as much upset by the tattoo as she is shocked that I actually had the guts to do it," Teddy admitted. "Lee's discovered that if you poke it, it moves, though." He pulled up the sleeve of his school robes to reveal a fading bruise right in the centre of the phoenix's body. "Stabbed at me a thousand times a day clear through July."

"Yeah, I got to remember that one," Jesse said. "Knarl quills. They create a moving tattoo."

* * *

"All right, Teddy, I have to ask," Victoire sighed one evening. Jesse had a Quidditch practice and Marcus was up in the dorm room laughing at the full moon with Kryton, leaving the two alone on their little escapade. "Why the phoenix?"

"Oh, there's a thousand reasons for it," Teddy laughed, his arm settled comfortably around her waist. It was strange, how natural the progress had been: from childhood playmates and rivals to school companions to... whatever you could call this.

"Give me one or two," she replied.

"Well," Teddy said as they sat down beside an old tree by the lake. "The phoenix has always been a sign of strength through suffering, the triumph of life over death, the perseverance of the essence of oneself..."

"That's a load of waffle, and you know it," Victoire accused.

"All right, so it's a symbol of the Order," Teddy laughed. "Y'know how Rosier and Yaxley and that lot all keep talking about how they're going to get serpents or skulls tattooed on their arms in support of their fathers' beliefs?"

"Yeah, and they'll get a real shock when they're arrested for hate crimes," Victoire said.

"Any way, so the phoenix is really just to counteract them, to prove that if they try to bring back the Dark years, that we'll fight back." He shrugged self-consciously. "And, I guess you could say that I'm sort of a child of the Order, really, I mean, my parents were both in it and so was Harry. And I was actually born in the war..."

"We're all children of the Order, Teddy," Victoire reminded him. "Our entire family was in the Order." She was quiet for a moment. "I like that idea, really, the identification of the Order's kids. I mean, how many people have forgotten what it meant, what our parents fought and died for? I think the phoenix is a great idea. And that way, we can never fall into that trap either..."

"I'll bet Jesse would be willing to reserve that tattoo art solely for the Order kids," Teddy said. "He said even after I'd just gotten it done that it seemed too sacred to just slap on any person."

"I think we'll have to wait until we're of age, though," Victoire said with a smile, patting his cheek. "After what Aunt Ginny did to you, I don't think anybody's going to want to risk another wrathful mother."

Teddy laughed. "My ears are still ringing. It can be a rite of passage into adulthood."

* * *

"Rosier and Yaxley, seven o'clock," Jesse muttered.

Teddy glanced up momentarily to see the two Slytherins walking across the courtyard. "Ignore them, what are they going to do?" he replied, returning his attention to his Charms homework.

"What's this, Teddy ignoring Rosier?" Marcus asked teasingly.

"Teddy has homework to finish," Victoire said approvingly, kissing his cheek affectionately for a moment. "That's a good boy."

"What am I, a puppy?" Teddy muttered, though a faint blush had spread across his cheek. "Gerroff me, Vic. Just because you're a prefect now, doesn't mean you can maul me to death."

"Maul you?" she asked innocently. "I would never _maul_ you."

"You do it all the time, genius."

"So why is Teddy ignoring Rosier again?" Jesse asked, cutting off Victoire's retort.

"Because Professor Rumer told him that if she caught them jinxing each other one more time, she would pull a Carrow and string them both from the ceilings by their ankles for a week," Ella announced, coming over to join her Gryffindor companions. "And Professor Rumer is on corridor patrol this evening."

"Hey, half-breed!" Rosier called.

"Ignore them," Victoire muttered, turning back to her homework. "Teddy, don't rise..."

"Feeling ill? A little _hairy_, maybe?" Rosier sneered as he and Yaxley drew closer.

"Bug off, Rosier," Marcus said tightly, looking up momentarily. Teddy was focusing very intently on his paper, though his hand had closed tightly around his holstered wand, knuckles whitening from the grip. Victoire put a warning hand over his.

Laughing, Yaxley said, "Oh, it looks like the pack doesn't want us around, Hayden."

"I would say so, Sagittarius," Rosier agreed. "Looks like they're hard at work."

"Yeah, looks like," Yaxley replied. And with that, he dumped a bottle full of what looked like water over Teddy's homework. They took off just in time to avoid Teddy firing a volley of furious jinxes after them.

"Damn it," Teddy growled, picking up his parchment to try and recover the damage done. The ink ran down the soggy paper relentlessly and soaked into his hand. "Damn it."

"We'll get them back, Teddy," Jesse assured him dismally.

"Not tonight, we're not," Teddy grumbled, trying futilely to dry out the parchment by magic and recover the words he'd written. "Damn it." He was starting to feel dizzy, his stomach twisting into nauseous knots as he dropped back down to the ground. "Damn it."

"Teddy, you feeling all right?" Ella asked worriedly. "You're white as a ghost."

"I don't know," he muttered, feeling a cold sweat break out on his face. "It's like I've caught the flu all of a sudden." His extremities began to tingle.

"You don't think they laced it with something?" Victoire asked Ella worriedly, as Marcus and Jesse exchanged a worried glance. Teddy tried to regain control of his spasming muscles, heart pounding when Marcus' eyes suddenly widened and he bolted off towards the headmistress' office at a flat-out run.

"Come on, let's get him to the hospital wing," Victoire said decisively.

Jesse, who had been looking in the direction Marcus had left, suddenly seemed to understand and said sharply, "Don't touch him!"

"Jesse," Ella protested.

"Ella, Victoire, back away," Jesse ordered, yanking them both back. The headmistress appeared just then.

"Everybody, return to your houses!" she ordered, her voice carrying no risk of misinterpretation. "Your own houses," she added sternly to Ella, who was heading towards Gryffindor with the others.

* * *

"What the hell..." Teddy moaned blearily as he woke up. He couldn't seem to open his eyes... "What's going on?" he asked, heart racing as he tried to sit up, only to feel a firm hand push him back down by the shoulder.

"Lie back down, Teddy, you've had a hell of a time," came Harry's gentle voice. "Calm down, it's over. How do you feel? Lavender, Lavender, he's awake..."

"Confused," Teddy groaned, trying to rub at his eyes. He was stopped by the presence of thick bandages on his face. That explained why he couldn't open his eyes. "What happened? Why am I bandaged? Where am I?"

"What question do you want me to answer first?" Harry asked. "What, why or where?"

"Start with where, that seems easiest," Teddy mumbled. "Gerroff, whoever you are," he grumbled to the cool hands carefully removing his bandages.

"You're at St Mungo's, Teddy," Harry replied quietly, grip tightening on Teddy's shoulder when the teenage boy flinched at the glaring light hitting his eyes. "Lavender, can't you turn down the lights for him?" he asked, a little more sharply than intended, perhaps. "I don't want him blinded as well as scarred."

"I was just going to do that, Harry," Lavender replied curtly.

"What am I doing at St Mungo's?" Teddy asked, reaching up tentatively to touch his face. It seemed unnaturally ridged across his temple... through his cheekbones... past his jaw... "Harry, what happened to me? What's this on my face?"

"You don't remember anything, Teddy?" Harry asked carefully.

"Nothing, nothing past getting out of Charms..." Teddy tried desperately to rack his brain for anything, anything at all that would give him some clue... "I think... I think we were all going into the courtyard to do homework?"

"That's right," Harry murmured, combing Teddy's hair out of his face. "You and Jesse and Marcus and Victoire."

"And Ella," Teddy said suddenly. "Ella was there. She came after, and she said something..."

_"... Because Professor Rumer told him that if she caught them jinxing each other one more time, she would pull a Carrow..."_ Ella's voice echoed faintly in his mind.

"Rosier," Teddy said emphatically. "Rosier and Yaxley. They were passing, trying to get a rise out of us, and I was ignoring them..."

"That's what Marcus told me," Harry agreed softly.

"And then..." Teddy stopped, trying to recall the next moments. "He poured some kind of clear liquid stuff on my Charms homework..."

"It was your Transfiguration homework, actually, but carry on," Harry laughed.

"That's all I remember. What happened?" he asked warily.

"David Edsvale thinks it was water laced with some unknown potion," Harry said softly, his voice suddenly darkening. "Can't prove it now, of course, it evaporated long ago. You absorbed it in through your skin."

"It got all over my hands... from trying to dry out my homework. But what happened?" Teddy persisted, heart pounding so loudly he was surprised somebody hadn't come to cite him for disturbance of the public peace. "Harry, how did I get hurt? What happened last night?"

"That was three nights ago, Teddy," Harry replied, shakiness in his voice for the first time. "You've been out cold for three days. You were quite near death when we finally got you out..."

"Out from _where_?" Teddy demanded.

Harry sighed. "From the Shrieking Shack."

"But why was I..." Understanding dawned in Teddy's mind. "I was transformed?"

Harry nodded slightly. "We – David Edsvale and I – think that the potion he mixed into the water must've somehow brought out your latent werewolf genes. It forced you into a transformed state without the aid of a full moon. It's something nobody's ever seen before."

Teddy tried to remember. "... Marcus went to get McGonagall... and they were clearing the courtyard..."

"They barely managed to get you into the passage under the Whomping Willow in time," Harry said quietly. "From what I understand of it from _Professor_ McGonagall," he added with a slight smile, "you were being so violent that the passage actually collapsed behind you and trapped you in the Shack." He sighed and traced his finger across the scars on his godson's face. "I imagine you gave yourself these in the course of the night."

"But why don't I remember any of that?" Teddy asked desperately. "I'd remember if I'd ripped my damn face open, wouldn't I?" He looked down at his arms, which had more bandages scattered around in places, more shallow scratches and bruises. "Merlin, I mean, Harry, look at me! Shouldn't I remember _something_?"

"Not always," came Marcus' quiet voice from the doorway. Teddy looked up to see Marcus and Jesse coming into the hospital room. "Hey, stranger," he added with a wry grin. "Victoire's about to go mad with worry, you'd best haul ass back to Hogwarts. Sorry, Mr Potter," he added to Harry.

"Harry, and that's all right, I've got an Auror's mouth too," Harry laughed. "Lavender says you have to stay here one more night, Teddy, and then you can go back to school. I have to head back into work, but Ginny and the kids are coming in tonight." He paused and then gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. "Make sure you tell Lily about the exploding cauldron. She'll get a kick out of it."

Teddy rolled his eyes. "Bye, Harry." Harry left and Marcus and Jesse took his place. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Assessing the damage done," Marcus said seriously.

"We told the girls they weren't allowed to come with us," Jesse explained. "You know, just in case you were horribly disfigured. All we could see from the castle was the Emergency Transport Healers strapping you down on their backboard after the Aurors dug you out of the passage. McGonagall and the Heads of Houses weren't letting any of the students out of their houses."

"Was I actually _in_ the passage?" Teddy asked with a frown.

"No, I think you were just inside the Shack," Marcus replied. "They were trying to clear the passage for a long time. It collapsed again just as they pulled you out."

There was silence for a moment, before Jesse said suddenly, "So you probably wrecked my awesome tat, yeah?"

"I don't know," Teddy replied, pulling up the sleeve. "Nope. Still as awesome as ever."

Marcus laughed, and before long, the three friends were laughing. No particular reason, just the nervous, helpless I-don't-know-what-else-to-do laughter of a narrow escape.

* * *

"TEDDY!" came both Victoire and Ella's relieved shouts from the front steps as Teddy walked in. It took exactly 6.9 seconds for them to reach him, Victoire reaching him just before Ella and throwing her arms around his neck tightly.

"Gerroff, girls, I'm fine," Teddy muttered, though he was smiling as he said this. He wrapped his arms around Victoire in return and kissed her forehead without thinking. "I'm fine."

"_Fine_?" Victoire shrieked, looking up and tracing her fingers over the deep, ugly scars. "_Fine_, he says. He rips his face open and makes me worry myself to death for a week and all he says is he's _fine_?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's all he said," Teddy replied with a grin as he leaned in and kissed her lips.

"Oh!" came the triumphant yell of Marcus. "Oh, I win! He kissed her first! Pay up, Jesse!"


	19. A Brother and a Son

**Chapter 18: A Brother And A Son**

"Can you _believe _it's tomorrow?" 11-year-old Fred exclaimed happily to his cousin and best friend.

"I can hardly wait," Jay agreed with a grin.

"So show me your wand!" Fred said eagerly, pulling out his own from his pocket.

* * *

"Can you believe they're that old?" Hermione sighed wistfully. "That they're all starting school now?"

Ginny looked at her and said dryly, "Teddy's graduating this year. How do you think _I_ feel?"

"No, I won't believe it, he's still just a baby!" Molly groaned.

* * *

"George," Katie said softly as she let her hair down from its ponytail that evening. "You're coming to Kings' Cross with us tomorrow, right?"

George nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, Ron's going to manage the store for the morning."

"Good," Katie murmured as she gave him a light kiss. "Don't stay up too late reminiscing," she said knowingly.

George made a disgruntled face at her and left the room quietly.

Fred was fast asleep in his tangled bedsheets, his clothes strewn all over the room and his new wand lying on the bedside table. He had half-started projects (all fiendish co-plottings with Jay, no doubt) sitting on his bureau and his desk, one lying suspiciously close to the bed.

Rolling his eyes, George waved his wand across the room and everything flew back into its rightful place.

Was it really possible that it has been 17 years since the last time he'd seen his brother alive and well? How could it possibly have gone by so fast? It seemed like it had been only yesterday that they and Lee had all gone creeping up to Remus and Tonks' place in Cheswick for what turned out to be Potterwatch's final broadcast. They had been howling with laughter at the trio's sheer audacity…

_

* * *

_

"They broke into damn Gringotts, people! They broke into damn Gringotts and escaped alive!" Fred howled, as George and Lee tried not to bang the table so hard that it disrupted the feed. "Gringotts!"

_"What next?" George agreed with tears of laughter in his eyes, exchanging a gleeful look with Fred and Tonks, who was sitting on the countertop watching them. "They got guts, you gotta admit that."_

_"Well, I say the day that a bunch of 17-year-olds can break into Gringotts and escape alive, is the day that marks the end of the war," Lee announced, wiping off his own eyes._

_"Oh, please…" he heard Remus mutter from behind them, as Teddy whined slightly. "I'm more than ready for this war to end."_

_If they'd only known what was going to happen less than twelve hours later… would they have still said the same thing?_

* * *

"Dad!" Fred called excitedly, pausing again at the beginning of Platform 7. "Dad, _come on_ already! I bet Jay and Louis have already beat us there! You're so _slow_!"

"Daddy, why can't _I_ go with Fred?" 7-year-old Alyssa complained, clinging to George's hand as she dashed along behind him. "Daddy, _I _want to go to Hogwarts, too, Lily says _she's_ going with Teddy and Jay…"

"Lily is clearly Ginny's child, because that was one of the biggest lies I've ever heard, Lys," George said. "Lily isn't starting Hogwarts for years yet, exactly same as you. The only people going this year are Teddy, Victoire, Nikki, Louis, Jay and Fred."

"Daddy, Lily _said_…"

"Lily is lying, that girl has more Marauder in her than the other three put together."

* * *

"Teddy, why can't _I_ come with you?" they heard Lily whining from the moment they entered the platform.

"Because you're not old enough yet, Lee."

"I am too old enough, Ted Lupin, I want to go to school with you!"

"No, you're not, Lee, you have to wait until you're 11."

"See?" George laughed as Alyssa's jaw dropped. "I told you your cousin is nothing but a Marauder and a Weasley."

"George, that wasn't a very nice thing to say about your niece," Katie reprimanded, still pulling along their youngest child, 5-year-old Samuel. "Sam, darling, hold onto Mummy's hand, I don't want you getting trampled in this crowd."

"Well, it's true!" George protested as Fred laughed and ran up ahead to greet Jay. "The whole lot of them live to raise hell!"

"Bit rich coming from you!" Katie laughed. "I seem to remember you and Fred dropping bombs and firecrackers and Merlin only knows what else when we were in school!"

"Daddy wouldn't ever do _that_," Sam said in a scandalized tone. "Daddy's a hero and heroes don't do _that_."

_

* * *

_

"Daddy," 4-year-old Fred asked as he climbed up onto George's lap one evening, sending a brief, jealous glower in newborn Alyssa's direction. "Daddy, is this a picture from when you were little?" From his pocket he pulled out an old picture and showed it to George. "Why are there two of you in the picture, Daddy, is it a magic trick?"

_George took the photo and looked at it for a moment. It was the picture from their trip to Egypt, the summer before fifth year. A brief smile flickered across his face as he remembered those last carefree months before his world came crashing down around his ears. When his biggest concern had been to lock Percy in a pyramid, to put beetles in Bill's soup and torment Ron as much as humanly possible. To laugh with Fred and try to wind their mother up by claiming to be the other twin. It seemed so long ago now… "No," he finally answered Fred, settling his son down on his lap. "No, it's not a magic trick, Fred. I used to have a twin brother who was identical to me, long before you were born. His name was Fred."_

_"Hey, that's the same as my name!" Fred exclaimed, twisting around to look at his father. "Isn't that weird, Daddy, that he has the same name as me? What happened to him?"_

_George sighed. "No, it's not weird, Fred. My brother was killed in the war, and Mummy and I named you in honour of him. Just like Jay is named after Uncle Harry's daddy and godfather, and just like Al is named after other people in the Order who were killed in the war, and just like Lily is named after Uncle Harry's mummy and Teddy's mummy. Just the same as that. It's a very special honour, Fred."_

_"So your brother Fred is sort of like a hero, right?" Fred asked innocently. "Just like you and everyone else in the Order, right?"_

_George smiled. "Yeah. He's a much bigger hero than us."_

* * *

"Sammy," Katie sighed. "One day you will grow up and learn that your father does not walk on water."

"The spell's too strenuous," George said with a grin, laughing and dodging her playful swipe as they joined Harry, Bill, Fleur and the rest of the school-age children on the platform.

"Lily, you're such a liar!" Alyssa exclaimed immediately.

"Where's Ginny?" George asked Harry, as the two redheaded little girls began arguing good-naturedly.

Harry rolled his eyes. "She had a deadline looming over her head, she's writing up a feverish storm trying to make it."

"We got to go to the World Cup in Austria this summer, Uncle George," 9-year-old Al spoke up eagerly.

"We even got to meet the teams!" Jay added excitedly.

"It was pretty cool," Teddy admitted with a grin.

"Yeah, oh ye of the 'find every wandmaker in the country and pick his brain apart to learn the different styles'," Harry teased him gently.

Teddy grinned at him. "One day you will be infinitely glad to have a wandmaker for a godson."

"Yeah. Free tune-ups," Harry laughed. "Repayment for seventeen years of room, board, meals and hospital trips. And no less than a hundred-fifty school owls that Andromeda was never told of."

* * *

And as the train pulled out of the station, George watched it go with a faint tug at his heartstrings, remembering the joy and the excitement of school with your best friend at your side. He could almost imagine his brother standing there with him, cracking some sort of joke about the follies of youth, and suddenly he thought about the fact they were actually two separate entities now (not just Fred-and-George, George-and-Fred or Gred-and-Forge), experiencing two different worlds.

Smiling slightly, George murmured, "Have fun, Fred," and turned to go at Katie and Alyssa's calls. He swung Sam up onto his shoulders and left the platform feeling maybe just a little less burdened with the pain of remembering.


	20. If There Was Any Way

**Chapter 19: If There Was Any Way**

_Hogwarts graduation night, June 2016:_

"You, Ella Neufeld, are drunk," Jesse declared with a laugh as the five friends were sitting around a table at the Hogs Head. "No more Bailey's for you."

"I'll finish it," Marcus immediately butted in, swiping Ella's glass from her.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Ella yelped, trying to grab her glass back.

"Ella, you can't even aim right," Victoire laughed. "I think your beverages are done for tonight. Actually, I think Aberforth should've stopped giving you any a while back. Maybe we should head back up to the castle now."

"Ugh, Ella, how could you drink, like, 8 shots of this?" Marcus asked, setting the glass back down on the table. "This stuff is disgusting."

"It grows on you after the first shot," Ella replied, grabbing onto Jesse's arm as she stumbled getting to her feet. "All right, we are so not walking back to the school at our regular speed."

***

"Ella, are you sure you're okay?" Victoire asked worriedly, looking behind her as she and Teddy were walking up ahead of them.

"I don't know," Ella groaned as she stopped.

"You know what," Marcus started to say as he caught Ella's other arm and helped Jesse ease her down to the ground, "I'm not feeling so great myself. Maybe that drink wasn't good…"

As Teddy and Victoire turned around to rejoin them, he caught sight of Rosier in the not-so-distant shadows, handing something in a small plastic envelope to one of the other grads. "Should we call one of the professors, Ella?" he asked, ignoring Rosier. "I think Neville – "

"Professor Longbottom went back up to the castle at midnight," Ella said through clenched teeth. "Oh, God, there's something wrong…"

"Victoire, go get Madame Pomfrey," Teddy ordered, but Victoire was frozen to the spot as Ella's face went bleach-white and she clutched at her chest. "Oh, fine, then. _Expecto patronum_!"

The silvery fox went bolting up to the school without any instructions, leaving the teens alone on the darkened path.

***

By the time Neville and Madame Pomfrey had arrived, Marcus was trembling uncontrollably. Jesse was trying valiantly to get him to stop, and Teddy had Victoire wrapped securely into his arms, his face set in stone as she sobbed.

Ella was lying motionless on the ground.

***

Harry and a few other Aurors arrived barely half an hour later. Marcus had been taken to St Mungo's. Students were beginning to gather around, whispering to each other in horrified curiosity.

"Get these kids out of here," Harry muttered to one of his accompanying Aurors. "Guys, what happened?" he asked, sitting down on one of the boulders next to Teddy and Victoire.

"She… she just dropped," Victoire said hoarsely, her face still buried into Teddy's shoulder. "She just…"

"She'd had a lot to drink," Teddy said softly. "We were going back up to the castle, and she wasn't feeling well at all. When we stopped and turned around, she was white. She was grabbing at her front like she had heartburn or something. And then…" He stopped, voice cracking slightly as he tightened his hold on Victoire.

Harry turned to the Auror standing behind him. "Get the medical examination unit. I want an autopsy."

Victoire let out a strangled cry. "Uncle Harry, you can't cut her apart!"

"We're not cutting her apart, Vicky, I promise," Harry said soothingly. "Come on, you two, I'm taking you home. Jesse, you coming?"

Jesse nodded silently.

***

"Teddy?" Lily asked cautiously as she opened the door to his room. "Teddy, can I ask you something?"

Teddy looked up from the _Daily Prophet_, where Ella's death had managed to make front page despite Harry's best efforts to keep it quiet. Rita Skeeter was having a field day with this: lax school measures, a lack of adequate supervision, shameful behavior out of the post-war generation… "Yeah, sure, Lee." He tossed the paper to the floor, gesturing for her to come join him on his bed.

"Teddy, is it true that you and Marcus and Jesse are leaving?" Lily asked, as she climbed up onto his bed. "Louis told Jay that."

Teddy sighed. Louis must've overheard him telling Victoire when they had first decided on the trip last month. "We're going to stick around for a little while longer, Lee, but yeah. We _are_ going away for a year."

"I don't want you to go," Lily protested. "Why can't you just stay here?"

"Because, Lee, we need to get away for a while. I promise I'll come home for holidays."

"And birthdays," Lily insisted. "You have to come home for Dad's birthday, Mum's birthday, Halloween, Christmas, Al's birthday, Jay's birthday, Easter, Remembrance Day, Victoire's birthday, my birthday and the end of school."

"Lily, at that rate, I'll be coming home every month," Teddy pointed out.

"Well, then, you don't have much point in leaving, do you?" Lily said in satisfaction.

Teddy smiled and pulled his little sister into a gentle headlock. "Tell you what, Lee: Christmas, Easter, Remembrance Day and I'll make a special trip in just for your birthday."

"Like, special just for me?" Lily asked, brightening. "Like, Al and Jay don't get it?"

"Just for you, Lee."

Lily had just thrown her arms around Teddy's neck in delight when Harry knocked at the door, dark circles under his breath. "Oh, hi, Daddy!" She released Teddy and went to go hug Harry. "Daddy, did you catch the bad guys? You were gone all night and all day, you _must've_ got them!"

"Hey, Lilykins," Harry greeted quietly, returning the hug tightly. "Can you let Teddy and I talk for a bit? Go play some Quidditch with Jay and Al, all right – I'll even let you use my Lightning."

Lily laughed and dashed down the hallway. As Harry dropped down to the bed beside Teddy, his teenage son said quietly, "Have you found out anything?"

Harry sighed. "Teddy, there's no easy way to say it – "

"Just say it, then," Teddy cut him off.

As his godfather hesitated again, Teddy felt his heart drop even further. "What?" he asked warily.

"Teddy, the examiners said that Ella died of an overdose," Harry began softly.

"Overdose?" Teddy asked with a frown. "Overdose of _what_?"

"A Muggle narcotic called crystal meth," Harry explained. "They said it looked like she'd been using for years. The drugs combined with the alcohol she drank last night… Teddy, the examiners said it was only a matter of time. Her body was a train wreck."

Teddy stared at him in shock, shaking his head. "No, you're wrong. You're wrong."

"Teddy, if there was any way I could change what they found… if there was any way I could make it better…" Harry started to say. "I wish I could lie, tell you that it was somebody else's fault… but you're an adult now. I can't lie to you anymore."

***

Even when she was dead, Ella's parents couldn't stop fighting over her. The entire funeral was punctuated by their violent outbursts at each other, interrupting the Muggle priest trying to perform the ceremony. They blamed each other for her death, for having given her the drugs, for not supervising her enough. They threatened police involvement, they threatened legal action.

All four friends were in a state of shock, sickened when they read the Daily Prophet of following days to see headlines, news stories, editorials, letters all demanding the immediate expulsion of the Muggleborns from Hogwarts, supported in whole by Rita Skeeter and Dolores Umbridge.

_"We never had such troubles until the Muggleborns came…"_

_"We take care of our own: expel the outsiders."_

_"Magical education to magical children. No Muggles allowed."_

And people went crazy after the Ministry refused to consider the matter. The day before the boys were to leave, Neville's Patronus came bursting into the Potters' kitchen at dinner with Williamson's.

_"There's a riot at Hogwarts!"_

_"People are desecrating the cemeteries!"_

***

Teddy, Marcus and Jesse insisted on aiding to subdue the crowds. When they got to Hogwarts, Jesse gasped.

"Oh my God… guys, look what they're doing."

The memorial was being bombarded by spells, pieces of marble flying everywhere, ground being torn up. And to the three best friends' horror, they saw indistinct forms being lifted into the air.

"Oh, like hell they're going to," Teddy growled, taking off at a run.

"Oh, like _hell_ they're that stupid…" Jesse muttered to Marcus before the two young men took off after their friend.

***

Was this what it had felt like in the final battle? This complete sense of chaos and fury and fragmented flashes of consciousness? Had his parents wondered if each flash of light was going to be the last thing they saw, every shout the last thing they heard, every jolt and fall the last thing they felt? Had they felt sure that they would live another day to come home to each other, home to him, that they had years yet to live? Or had they known – had they known that they wouldn't be returning, known that they were leaving him alone in the world for no other reason than the war that he had so often heard talked about?

Had they given him one last kiss, one last cuddle before they'd left? Had he heard them whispering in his ear before the door closed quietly behind them and he continued to sleep, blissfully oblivious to the doom ahead?

Faintly, he felt his wand drop from his hand, heard the distant crack. And at that moment he realized that the reason his parents died hadn't been some stupid noble and self-sacrificing reason. They had died because idiots like this had decided that some people weren't worthy.

***

When the dust finally cleared, the area around him was in devastation. Harry was coming up over the hills, Marcus and Jesse both seemed to be in shock and Neville was gripping his arm so tight, he thought the circulation might cut off.

"Let me go, I'm fine," Teddy muttered, yanking his arm out of Neville's grasp. "Merlin…" He looked around and his heart stopped. The tomb was in ruins, half-rotted bodies were torn apart and strewn about the grass. The rioters had disappeared, and his wand was lying in three pieces on the ground.

"Oh, Merlin…" Harry said as he came up. "Neville, Jesse, Marcus, go back home. We'll handle it."

Once they had left, Harry returned his attention to his godson. Teddy was kneeling next to the remains of what had once been Remus Lupin, his hands shaking as he slowly reached for part of the body. "Teddy. Teddy, don't." He knelt down next to the teenager, repeating as he twisted Teddy's face away, "Teddy, don't do this. This isn't how I want you to picture them in your mind." Reaching for the tarnished plaque lying nearby, he placed it in Teddy's hands. "I don't know what you see, or how you see it, or why it's only you that can, but whatever it was you saw your second Remembrance Day, it made you happy. _That's_ what I want you to picture when you think of them."

Quietly, Teddy drew his thumb over the engraved name. A flash of a man, soundlessly laughing as he walked around the sitting room with a baby in his arms, watching three young men gathered around an old microphone. Memories of arms he would never remember the feeling of being wrapped in. Memories of a laugh he would never remember the sound of listening to. Only the feeling of the cool metal beneath his fingertips – the only thing he ever knew of his parents.

"Go back home, Teddy," Harry said softly, bringing him out of his torturous vision. "I'll take care of it."

Slowly, Teddy set down the plaque and got to his feet, pausing a distance away, where the ugly sight of what used to be his mother greeted him. Kneeling down again, he hesitated before picking up the second plaque he knew so well. A flash of a young woman, her face alight with joy as she wrapped her arms around his father's neck in a torrential downpour, laughing without sound as he returned the tight embrace and whirled her around. A soundless whisper in his ear, a return in hers. Memories of love he would never remember watching. Memories of a family he would never remember experiencing. Only the feeling of the cool metal beneath his fingertips.

***

"Are you sure you still want to go?" Marcus asked quietly early the next morning, as Teddy was preparing to leave. Ginny and Harry had woken up to say goodbye – the kids were all still out cold.

"Yeah," Teddy replied quietly, letting both his guardians hug him one last time, before the sounds of Lily's drowsy voice from the hallway interrupted his departure.

"Teddy, you never said goodbye," she complained, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You promise to keep your promise?" she asked sleepily into his ear.

"I promise, Lee," he replied gently, giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek. And then before she could try to talk him out of it again, they had gone.


	21. Charlie Weasley, Dragon Chaser

**Chapter 20: Charlie Weasley, Dragon Chaser**

_Christmas 2016:_

"Charlie, darling, it's wonderful to have you back again – is that a new scar there, dear?" Molly fussed over her son as he walked into the Burrow.

"No, it's not, Mum, stop fussing," 44-year-old Charlie said patiently. "Hey, so where is everybody?" he asked jokingly, as one or another nephew dashed by in pursuit of one or another niece as one or another brother or sister yelled after them.

"Oh, hi, Charlie, nice to see you," Ginny said in exasperation as she paused in the doorway. "Lily Nymphadora Potter, you get back here this instant and _apologize_ to your brother! Stop tormenting your cousin! _Merlin_, child…"

"But _Mum_!..."

Rolling his eyes, Charlie took his bag and headed upstairs to put away his things.

***

Things never seemed to change at the Burrow: the staircase leading up to their childhood bedrooms was still lined with pictures, though their positioning and subjects had changed over the years.

The pictures which had hung in his childhood were all on the left wall. Pictures of each of the seven as newborn infants, as toddlers, as children, as teenagers. Family pictures of a childhood long since gone, of a family no longer the same.

The right side now held pictures of the weddings, the grandchildren. Laughing, glowing couples; teens, kids and toddlers.

It seemed like a thousand years ago already that the war had ended, that their lives had been torn so irreversibly asunder. Charlie could still remember the shocked silence falling over Hogwarts as Voldemort had fallen to the ground, could still remember the way the magnitude of the battle and gravity of the casualties had hit him, could remember peeling his little sister away from the stricken young man who would, a year later, become her husband. He could remember watching Bill shut Fred's eyes, and he could remember the tears in his mother's eyes and the quaver in her voice the day he'd left for Romania again, desperate to escape the immediacy and the shock and the crisis of England.

He came back only occasionally now. Every few years at Christmas, every few years at Remembrance Day. For major family events like weddings (although the last of those had happened six years ago, and he hadn't been back since). His mother still faithfully wrote him owls every fortnight with news of his brothers and sisters, with updates on his nieces and nephews. She would deplore his eternal bachelordom. She would pass along information about his old classmates. She hinted that she would love for him to move back to England and settle down.

"Uncle Charlie," Lily interrupted his thoughts, dashing into his old room. "Uncle Charlie, can you keep a secret?"

Charlie laughed and turned around. "Oh, trust me, Lily, I can keep a secret. Do you have one for me?"

Lily nodded excitedly, her bright hazel eyes sparkling as her red hair tumbled haphazardly around her face – Merlin, she looked like Ginny. "Come here, Uncle Charlie, and I'll tell you." She grinned at him.

"All right, Lily, what is it?" Charlie asked, crouching down as Lily whispered to him,

"Jay and Fred took the Marauders' Map from Daddy's desk last week. I saw them. Daddy doesn't even know yet. I kept it a secret, because Jay said he'd tell Nan I broke her clock if I told."

"Well, _did_ you break Nan's clock?" Charlie asked – his mother had written him a few years ago, recounting the mysterious destruction of their family clock. He had considered holding a mock funeral for it – that clock had been around since his parents had gotten married – but then he had thought better of it.

Lily contemplated him for a moment, before she nodded. "I didn't _mean_ to…"

"Don't worry, Lily, your secrets are safe with me."

***

"You know, and for the life of me, I can't figure where it's gone," Harry was saying to Ron and George as Charlie and Lily came back downstairs. "I know _I _haven't taken it out. It's been locked in my desk since Teddy brought it back from Hogwarts."

"You know, Fred and Jay have been rather well-behaved lately…" George commented, casting a glance towards his oldest son and nephew. Both boys and Louis were huddled around one of the corner tables, discussing something in soft voices.

"They're plotting something," Harry said darkly. "Something's going to go 'boom', I just know it."

"Daddy, has Teddy come yet?" Lily asked plaintively. "Teddy said he was coming home for Christmas."

"Yeah, where _is_ that globe-trotting kid of yours?" Charlie asked Harry.

"Romania, last I heard," Harry replied with a sigh. "Marcus caught wind of a natural remedyist, Jesse heard about some acclaimed tattoo artist and Teddy was off studying Romanian wandology. Lilykins, I don't know when Teddy's arriving. He and Jesse and Marcus are Apparating from wherever the hell they are now."

"Harry, watch your mouth," Ginny chided as she looked up from her conversation with Hermione and Audrey.

"For _what_?" Harry exclaimed, just as Lily shrieked and took off for the kitchen, shouting delightedly,

"Teddy's here! Teddy's here!"

"How the hell does she know these things?" came Teddy's good-natured question as he appeared in the doorway. "_I_ didn't even hear myself come in." He grinned as he caught his little sister in a tight hug and swung her around briefly. "Hey, Lee."

"Teddy, do you promise not to leave again?" Lily asked plaintively, as she wrapped her arms around Teddy's neck tightly.

"I'm just here for Christmas, Lee. I haven't even gotten to the good countries yet," Teddy laughed, setting Lily down and catching the next Weasley girl throwing herself at him – Victoire. "Hey, Vic."

***

Charlie had to shake his head as he watched the young man laugh and gladly accept her light slap for giving his girlfriend the same sort of greeting as his little sister.

"I'm sorry, Victoire. You make my life sparkle. Is that better?" Teddy asked, delivering a light kiss to her indulgently.

Sometimes Teddy reminded him so much of his old classmate and former girlfriend, it was frightening. It wasn't a fact that was widely known or widely spread that he and Tonks had once been an item, and yet he had seen the way his parents and Bill would cast glances at him sometimes while Teddy had been a little boy, as if they knew his inner thoughts. Thoughts about how he very well could have been Teddy Weasley and not Teddy Lupin, had Charlie not gone off chasing dragons.

The Romanian research was only supposed to have been a half-year. And then six months had stretched into a year, and then into two, and then into three… And by the time he'd come back to England, she'd given him up for good. She had just earned her Auror's badge, she had been assigned to one of the biggest cases the Auror's Office had ever handled – the escaped Azkaban prisoner Sirius Black, who had eluded capture at Hogwarts – and there was nothing left to salvage.

When he'd come back briefly in the summer after the second rise of Voldemort at the Triwizard, to find out how he could help the Order, he had been slightly unpleasantly surprised to discover who else but Nymphadora Tonks sitting in headquarters, laughing with the same man she was supposed to be hunting.

They'd had a brief conversation outside after that first meeting.

------

"_So there's no hope, then?" Charlie asked, a mild miserable tone in his voice. He hated sounding so sadly pathetic._

_Tonks smiled at him softly, shaking her head. "I don't think so, Charlie. I'm sorry. What we had was great, but I'm just not sure you sparkled."_

"_So we're back to the sparkling thing again, eh?" Charlie said wryly._

"_You _know_ that's my philosophy on love," Tonks said with a slight smile. "They have to make your life sparkle."_

"_Seen any good sparklers lately?"_

"_You know, I'm not too sure on that one, but I think I might've," she replied quietly, looking behind her briefly._

_Charlie looked in the same direction. Bill, Sirius and Lupin were all sitting around the table with some of the other Order, talking about something in hushed, steady tones. "Yeah, well, I hope he's multicoloured sparkles for you," he finally said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Send some to Romania, would you?"_

"_Is there any other kind?" she laughed as she gave him a quick hug, and in her eyes, he saw her thanks for letting her go without a fight. "If I find some, I'll try and owl it out to you. Everybody deserves multicoloured sparkles in their life."_

------

And that was the last he'd heard of her until he'd come back for Bill's wedding to discover that she, too, was married. Apparently he _did_ sparkle, and he must've had some powerful multicoloured sparkles, to make her smile like that.

He hadn't even known she was pregnant until after the final battle, when Harry had returned to the Burrow with the tiny baby Lupin in tow. He'd been incommunicado, hidden in a remote shack in Wales, awaiting the signal to venture out and finish it.

And that had also been part of his motivation for leaving – he couldn't stand being there, being there all the time to see this little boy who could've been – _should've_ been – his. See her in the way his eyes sparkled, in the way he would shake his hair out of his eyes, in the way he would flip his hair colours "because he was bored". Hear her voice in his…

So he had left for Romania, chasing dragons. Just like always.


	22. Real Enough

**Chapter 21: Real Enough**

_Brazil, February 2017_

Teddy and Marcus couldn't stop themselves from howling with laughter. "Jesse, you are fodder for ridicule!" Teddy gasped out as he watched his best friend climb back out of the river he'd fallen into.

"How in the _world_ did you manage that one?" Marcus agreed.

"Aw, shut up, guys," Jesse muttered self-consciously.

"Do not tease him like that," Cai Xuan scolded, laughing as Jesse sent both of his best friends back a triumphant glare before he kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Go, Jesse, go get changed into dry clothes."

"All right, we're going to go into town," Marcus announced, slinging an arm around Teddy's shoulder. "We are going to Mardi Gras, and we are going to engage in complete depravity because we only have a few months left before we are forced to become responsible adults."

Teddy laughed. "Absolutely. What is adolescence except one long depraved rampage?"

"I'm talking alcohol, dancing and complete abandon of our good British senses," Marcus continued. "Everything that we would never dream of writing home about, right?"

"Everything but what Victoire would hate me for," Teddy corrected.

"Oh, you're no fun anymore since she made you a kept man," Marcus grumbled.

"I'm all about the frivolity, Marcus, while you go off on the depravity," Teddy laughed.

*~*~*

"Come on, Teddy, this has _got_ to be better than sitting in some dark room, examining wands," Marcus called with a grin, winding his way through the crowds. "Look, even Cai is having fun. Look at them, all lovey-dovey, honeymooning, super-shotgun-wedding-ing and…"

"You are so drunk, Marcus," Teddy laughed, catching his best friend's arm before he tripped. "You know, depravity has its limits. You're done for the night. Sober up a bit before we start moving tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Marcus agreed, wavering on his own two feet as he dropped down to sit on the ledge next to Teddy. "Ugh, this stuff is strong…"

Teddy laughed again slightly. "Get it out of your system now, Marcus. I don't want you acting like this around Victoire."

"Why – oh, yeah. I guess not," Marcus muttered. "Ugh… Not really all that good for me, anyway. I'm going to have a banger of a headache tomorrow…"

"So why'd you drink all of it in the first place?" Teddy asked, frowning as an owl swooped down and landed gracefully on his leg. "What in the world…" He held out his hand, and the owl dropped the parchment into it.

"Hey, isn't that your godfather's owl?" Marcus asked, his words slurring only the slightest bit now.

"Yeah," Teddy replied, unrolling the parchment. Ginny's careful script was on the page, her words frantic as her sentences spilled out across the lines in an uncharacteristically panicked fashion.

… _Victoire's been taken to St. Mungo's. The Healers aren't sure what's wrong with her, but it seems quite serious. She's been asking for you, Teddy, asking where you are. I'm not sure that she realizes that you boys are away…_

Teddy got to his feet abruptly, stuffing the letter into his pocket. "Sleep that off, Marcus, and when you're sober again, tell Jesse and Cai that I've gone back home."

"Why?" Marcus asked, sitting up straight.

"Something's wrong with Victoire," Teddy replied, pulling his cloak around him again.

"What?" Marcus asked again.

"They're not sure, but it sounds serious," he answered, rubbing his eyes anxiously.

*~*~*

"Hello, darling," Ginny greeted softly as Teddy opened the old, familiar front door. "I see you've gotten my owl?" She got to her feet and wrapped him into a tight hug. "Everybody's missed you around here, Teddy," she murmured.

"What's going on?" Teddy asked, returning her hug. "Do they know anything more?"

Ginny shook her head.

"Mum, has Dad gotten home –" came Al's impatient call as he banged down the steps. He stopped when he saw his older brother standing in the sitting room. "Oh. Hi, Teddy, what are you doing home so early? I thought you weren't coming home until summer…"

"Teddy's here?" Lily shrieked excitedly upstairs. Within seconds, she had tumbled down the stairs and thrown herself into her brother's waiting arms. "Teddy, you're home!"

"Hey, Lee, what are you doing awake?" Teddy asked. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"Well, I _knew_ you were coming," Lily confessed, still hugging her older brother with all her strength. "I thought I would wait up and see if you were coming _tonight_."

Right. He had promised to come home for Easter. But February was a little early to expect him home…

"All right, the both of you, off to bed now," Ginny ordered softly, tugging Lily away and ushering her and Al back upstairs. Minutes later, she returned downstairs. "Come into the kitchen, Teddy," she said quietly. "The children who aren't at Hogwarts don't really know what's going on. We haven't told them much of the situation, because none of us are exactly sure."

"What _do_ you know?" Teddy asked, accepting the cup of tea she held out.

Ginny sighed. "Neville's said that she'd been acting out-of-sorts for the past couple of months. A day or two ago, she got really bad. The professors and Madame Pomfrey decided that it was better for her to be sent to St. Mungo's. It's beyond anything that the school's ever dealt with."

"What's he mean, 'out-of-sorts'?"

"Well, her magic's been getting out of control, she's been going in and out of depression, she's been… well, Neville describes it as 'going mad'." She sighed again. "I suppose you'll see what he means tomorrow." Biting her lip for a moment, she said, "Why don't you go to bed, Teddy? You look absolutely exhausted. Your bed is already made up, Lily insisted that we do it this afternoon…"

Teddy laughed slightly as he got to his feet. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that girl had Seer blood," he said. "Where's Harry?" he added after a second. "It's rather late to be at the Ministry, isn't it?"

Ginny sighed as she shook her head. "Greyback's been raising more and more hell for him. Poor man practically lives at the Aurors' Office these days." After a moment of silence, she added, "But I'm sure he would love to see you while you're home. And make sure you stop by Willow Hollow, because it will not aid your godfather and grandmother's tenuous truce if you visit one and not the other."

Teddy grinned and kissed her cheek. "No problem, Ginny. I live to please. I'll see you in the morning."

*~*~*

"Teddy?" Lily whispered in his ear, climbing onto the bed to shake his shoulders. "Teddy, are you awake?"

"Ugh, I am now, Lee," he groaned, flipping onto his back. "What do you want?"

"Come see what I can do," she said insistently. "Come watch, before you go to the hospital."

Teddy cracked open his eyes slightly, enough to notice that the sun hadn't even risen yet. "Cor, Lee, it's not even morning… I'm exhausted, show me later."

"Please, Teddy?" she asked plaintively. "Pretty please? Just for me?"

"No…" he growled drowsily. "Go back to bed, Lee."

She paused a moment, still sitting on the bed, then she threatened, "I'll tell Mum and Mrs. Tonks you got more tattoos."

"They're going to notice anyway, they're sort of in obvious places –" Teddy started to counter, when the door opened and Ginny's stern voice reprimanded,

"Lily Nymphadora, you go back to bed this second, it's 3 AM and your poor brother's just finished traveling from Brazil! Don't you dare bother him again, you hear me?"

"You heard her," Teddy grumbled. "Go back to bed."

"Then later, Teddy, you promise?" Lily persisted.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," he yawned, pulling his pillow over his head.

"_Look_ at me and say it," Lily said stubbornly.

Teddy lifted his pillow from his head just long enough to look her in her hazel eyes and repeat, "Sure, Lee, later."

*~*~*

He could hear the soft conversation in French as he approached the hospital room in St. Mungo's. It sounded like Fleur had already come in to visit Victoire.

Pausing just before the doorway, Teddy leaned back against the wall. Victoire's voice was high, anxious and faster than normal. It sounded like she was pacing back and forth inside the room, and Fleur's voice continued to sound like she was struggling to keep calm.

He thought he'd heard his name thrown into the conversation more than once, and something that sounded as though it might translate to 'South America'. Was Victoire asking where he was? But he had just owled her from Chile last week…

"Merlin…" he heard Victoire groan finally. "What the hell's going on with me, Maman?"

"Zey weell find an answer, Victoire," Fleur soothed softly. "I am sure of eet."

Teddy knocked at the doorframe, giving them advance warning before he appeared in the doorway, taking in the sight of Victoire's disheveled appearance with a degree of concern. It wasn't like Victoire to look anything less than perfect… "Hey, Vic," he greeted quietly.

Her entire face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she launched herself at him happily. "Teddy! You're here!" she exclaimed breathlessly, before she paused and waited with a slight frown. "You _are_ actually here?" she said uncertainly, reaching out slowly with one hand.

"I'm standing right in front of you, Victoire. How much more _here_ can I get?" Teddy said with a slight laugh and a grin.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've seen things that aren't there lately," she muttered, eyes dropping to the ground.

"C'mere," Teddy said, pulling her into his arms. "Real enough for you?" he teased as she wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face into his chest. "'S okay, Vic. The Healers know what they're doing, they'll fix you up in a flash once they know what to treat…"


	23. Madness

**Chapter 22: Madness**

Victoire flew into consciousness, scrambling for her textbooks lying on the side table. 'You don't need to do this, you don't need to do this –'

_Yes, you do, yes, you do, yes, you do…_

"Vic, what are you looking for?" came Teddy's voice beside her.

Whirling around, she frowned when she saw nothing but an empty room. Hadn't she just heard him?

_You're going crazy. Seeing things that aren't there, hearing voices that aren't real… Why would he be here? You're mad. Morgandy Hallows wouldn't be hearing voices._

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no…" Victoire muttered, spreading out her books on the bed in front of her. "Okay, okay. No, no, this is all wrong…"

'Don't need to do this, don't need to do this…'

_Yes, you do, yes, you do, yes, you do…_

Herbology. Defense Against the Dark Arts. Transfiguration. Arithmancy. Potions. No, it was all wrong…

'Don't need to do this, don't need to do this…'

_Yes, you do, yes, you do, yes, you do…_

Arithmancy. Herbology. Potions. Transfiguration. Charms. Defense Against the Dark Arts. No, it was still wrong….

'Don't need to do this, don't need to do this…'

_Yes, you do, yes, you do, yes, you do…_

Why couldn't she make it right?

"Vic, what are you doing?"

Victoire resisted the urge to turn around. No. She wasn't going to give the voices in her head the satisfaction of winning again. Maybe if they lost enough times, they would stop altogether. No, that didn't make any sense.

Everything was just _wrong_.

"Victoire," he repeated.

Hands trembling, Victoire spread out the textbooks again. Potions. Charms. Herbology. No, it was all _wrong_…

"Vic, I'm actually here. What's wrong?" An arm slid around her waist, pulling her away from her books.

Great. Now she was feeling things that weren't real. Damn it, those books were the key. If she could just get them _right_, everything would be fine…

Charms. Arithmancy. Defense Against the Dark Arts…


End file.
